Page 639 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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I want to raise something in particular that the Chief Minister, earlier on in his life in this house as Chief Minister, placed great importance upon. Recognising, as we all do, the importance of private sector growth in this once predominantly public service town, the Chief Minister, in his budget strategy statement of March 1990, just a year ago, said:
The Alliance Government has approached its responsibilities in a serious, businesslike and fair manner. We have set ourselves four clear goals.
The first is to promote the development of the private sector in the ACT ...
I have no argument with that; that was what the Labor Party was doing as well. He continued:
Our efforts will be directed towards creating the right environment for business, whether large or small.
I want to spell the next paragraph out in detail, and I want you to listen to it. This is his first priority. This is very important budget strategy:
We will encourage investment projects, both large and small ... We will focus particularly on the industries of the future -
I will not mention those in detail; I do not have time. He went on:
We will encourage development in light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution and will ensure that our infrastructure programs are attuned to the needs of these industries. And, of course, we shall be encouraging national bodies to locate in Canberra.
That is a very interesting point. I will come back to that. That was his budget strategy in March 1990; he placed great priority on those matters, as he should have done. When the budget came down six months later, after ample time for consideration and ample opportunity to prioritise these pious hopes, these soundly based hopes, in the budget figures, what happened? We got one paragraph in his speech - and that was also reflected in the figures that he brought out. All the money that was being spent was reflected in the sense of being worth one paragraph in amongst it all. This is what he said:
Within the ACT, we will also be taking action to promote economic development. One considerable step that the Government is taking is the preparation of new legislation to provide an effective and responsive system for land planning and management.
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