Page 1022 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 1991
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We are achieving significant goals in the area of expenditure reduction. Those are borne out by these forward estimates. They should be examined closely by those opposite; and, in particular, those opposite should think very carefully and clearly about how they are going to portray their own plans to the ACT. It is not enough to criticise this Government and say, "We would do it differently", unless you can stand up in this place, or outside, and say how you would do it differently. I do not believe that they can do it differently. The prospect is a charade.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (8.37): I am surprised that there appear to be no other speakers from the other side of the house. Having listened to that brilliant expose just presented by my colleague the Minister for Health, I can well understand why they sit there shamefaced and ashen-faced, wondering how they could possibly respond to that very good exposition of the nothingness that Ms Follett had to offer.
The Chief Minister said when he presented the forward estimates that the report was a factual one that detailed the forecasts of receipts and expenditure based on the existing policies of the Government. The forward estimates include the full-year impact of the initiatives taken in this year's budget. They also take account of projected population and employment levels, as well as forecast growth in the ACT. The forward estimates reflect the current economic environment, that of a recession - the recession, I might say, that we had to have. This is the recession that was brought on entirely through the bankrupt policies of the Federal Labor Government, and something which I noticed is referred to - - -
Mr Connolly: It is never your fault.
MR DUBY: Did this ACT Government bring on an Australia-wide recession, Mr Connolly? Of course it did not. It certainly did not. Many people are calling this recession a depression; yet Ms Follett in her expose can simply refer to it as "the hard times we are now facing", never, of course, sheeting home the blame to where it should lie. It should lie with the Federal Government; it does lie with the Federal Government and it will continue to do so. People in Australia know who to blame for excessive interest rates, for the young people losing their jobs or never being able to get a job under the policies that we have had for the last eight years, or for the small businesses going broke. Somehow Ms Follett says that all this is the fault of this ACT Government. What a load of rubbish.
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