Page 1017 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
In terms of those general trends, I must say that I find the forward estimates quite encouraging. To me, they indicate that, without the financial mismanagement of this Alliance Government, the outlook for the ACT budget is not as depressing as is often made out. Obviously, there are assumptions made, such as the outcome of the Grants Commission inquiry, which raise some doubts. However, leaving aside the restructuring provisions, which cannot be seen as ongoing recurrent expenditure, it does appear that the ACT recurrent budget is stabilising.
Whether this will continue under the incompetence of the Alliance Government is doubtful. I should add that I am concerned about the Government's projections on its future capital expenditure. The forward estimates show that this Government is planning to preside over a massive reduction in capital expenditure and it is quite beyond me, Mr Speaker, how the Treasurer can claim that these cuts will, in his words, "not only help stabilise local activity in 1991-92 but also provide the base for a longer-term core program of essential works, thereby minimising the peaks and troughs that have affected the local industry in the past".
They are Mr Kaine's words. I ask: Is he suggesting that we simply remove all the peaks so that we only have troughs? If you slash public capital expenditure when private capital expenditure is subdued, the fact is that you simply get lower troughs. This is not the kind of stabilisation that the Canberra community needs. It will lead to fewer jobs and an even less confident private sector. Mr Kaine's much vaunted budget strategy will do nothing for the ACT economy, except deepen our recession.
The real problem facing the ACT economy is that Mr Kaine and his Alliance actually have no economic strategy for Canberra. There is no plan and there is no concrete proposal. There is simply media hype and talk followed up with indecision and inaction. I would ask you to look, for example, at their response to ACT unemployment. The Chief Minister dismisses the facts, saying that our unemployment is still better than the national rate. All Mr Kaine says is that the Federal Government should do something. It is never his responsibility.
There is also the Government's response to the explosion of business bankruptcies under Mr Kaine's administration. The Chief Minister's first response, as usual, was to deny that the problem existed. He simply attempted to shoot the messenger - in this case, it was the Canberra Times. Then, when the facts became so obvious that they could no longer be ignored, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Collaery, acting for the Chief Minister who was also on an extended overseas holiday, decided that it was time to act.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .