Page 1018 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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As usual, Mr Collaery decided to address only the symptoms, not the causes. While Mr Collaery's attempt to provide a counselling service for bankrupts does deserve support - and, indeed, I support it - it does nothing to assist the ACT economy. What this Government must do is to implement policies designed to improve the economic climate in Canberra. What I mean by that is that they must act, and not simply continue to talk about acting.
It is not good enough for the Chief Minister to blame the Federal Government, stating that there is nothing he can do about the declining performance of the ACT economy. Mr Kaine, as Chief Minister, does have ministerial responsibility for the management of the ACT economy and he cannot continue to abrogate that responsibility. It is not good enough that nine months have elapsed since the Chief Minister, in response to this Assembly's committee report on commercial tenancies, said that the Alliance Government believed that there was a need for urgent action to address the problems encountered by commercial tenants.
As I say, nine months later, he is unable to tell the Assembly what the state of play is. The level of commercial rents is, after all, one of the more important factors in the increasing spate of bankruptcies. It is now clear that the inability of this Government to make a decision will most likely cost the ACT the section 19 redevelopment project. I know that Dr Kinloch would welcome that. He is on the public record as saying that. That section 19 redevelopment project is an economic boost that the ACT desperately needs. Again, we need action, not just more rhetoric. In the middle of a period of economic downturn, all I hear from the people of Canberra about the Government is its failure to grasp the nettle and actually do something for the ACT.
Finally, we have the great mess of ACT planning and development approvals. All we in the Opposition hear from the community is complaints about the current system, and those complaints are not necessarily that the system is flawed but that this Government is too lazy to make even the simplest decision. One way of fixing this is to introduce the new planning legislation. But, given the difficulties that the Government is having in getting that right, we can only assume that it is many months away - and that is despite Mr Kaine's assurance some four weeks ago that it would be available within two weeks.
The bottom line with all of these issues is that the Alliance Government simply cannot wash its hands of the ACT economy. I would suggest that, if Mr Kaine has that planning legislation, he might be wise to make it available rather than keeping it in his bottom drawer, because the ACT economy is the Government's responsibility; and, if there is something that you can do about it such as bringing forward the new planning legislation, then you ought to do it - not just sit there and bluster about it.
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