Page 1182 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 1991
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Secondly, funding will be provided to boost the capacity already provided in the 1990-91 budget for reducing the backlog of repairs and maintenance on ACT Government assets. This legacy of Commonwealth maladministration of the Territory must be redressed to avoid further deterioration of the ACT's capital base. We will take the opportunity to do so now, as far as we can. A range of building maintenance works covering schools, libraries and health and community services facilities totalling $1.8m will be undertaken. In addition, roads and stormwater facilities will receive maintenance attention with expenditure of $1.9m.
In all cases, the works proposed are clearly needed. They do not involve any overall increase in budget allocations. By advancing the projects, not only will the ACT economy benefit from employment opportunities in the short term, but the ACT community as a whole will be advantaged as these projects address either safety issues or high maintenance costs that will produce longer-term savings to the budget.
Thirdly, a layer of stamp duty that applies to the subdivision of new housing estates will be abolished. This will cut land costs and also speed development by eliminating the related administrative and land valuation processes. The revenue effect is only about $100,000 in a full year. In line with the thrust of these measures are the new arrangements for home ownership which were announced yesterday by my colleague the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Housing and Community Services. These measures, taken together, will not only assist low and middle income earners into home ownership but also provide much needed stimulation to the housing industry at this time.
The Commonwealth Government's statement last week on building a competitive Australia detailed a wide range of initiatives, many of which will benefit the ACT and the region. Over the longer term, we can expect dampened inflationary expectations as a result of the reform of the wholesale tax, abolition of quotas and accelerated reductions in tariffs. These initiatives will also reduce costs to industry and should improve both business and consumer confidence. The ACT economy, of course, is not dependent on protected industries and will consequently not directly experience the inevitable disruption associated with cuts in protection. In particular, when recent reductions in interest rates and taxes on inputs are taken into account, we can expect a progressive improvement in the outlook and performance of the building and tourism industries.
For the ACT, the flow-on benefits to other sectors, especially financial, property and other business services, are likely to be significant. Several measures, such as retention of tax concessions for research and development and changes to the Commonwealth purchasing policy for
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