Page 1525 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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However, I have some difficulty in supporting Ms Follett's comparisons between the Priorities Review Board report and the Else-Mitchell report. The time scale for the preparation of the two reports is one factor, but it is important to recall that Justice Else-Mitchell had a long and detailed knowledge of matters under investigation because of his role on the Commonwealth Grants Commission as it affected the ACT.
Justice Else-Mitchell, over the years, had been responsible for a number of detailed reports in relation to ACT financial matters. It was probably quite appropriate for Justice Else-Mitchell to be appointed to that committee, bearing in mind, of course, that the genesis of that report was established by the previous Leader of the Opposition, now the Chief Minister, Mr Kaine, back in September 1989 when the motion was put forward to the Assembly for its preparation. So, there are two factors, Mr Speaker. It was an appropriate motion to be moved by Mr Kaine, and it was an appropriate vehicle for the then Chief Minister to use to resolve that issue. Let us give credit where credit is due on this particular one. Top marks to both members for that particular exercise.
In relation to the Priorities Review Board report comparison, I think it is important to remember, as I have already indicated, that Justice Else-Mitchell did have a knowledge of matters like this because of his role in the Grants Commission. It was really just a matter of providing the judge with a vehicle with which to put his views, built up over a long period of time, into effect. That, I think, is what we see in the Else-Mitchell report on this matter. We see great knowledge, built up over a period of time, being put into a report which quite clearly has obtained general support from the community. It is a much needed report.
I endorse the suggestion made in the report that similar inquiries should ensure that the material on which they base their reports is made available. That is the way, with very few exceptions, that the committees of the Assembly operate. All the submissions are made available and I think that is appropriate.
I think the deal that the ACT people have been given with self-government, particularly in relation to matters financial, is nothing short of shoddy. From my point of view and my reading of the matter, quite frankly I think we were dudded in matters financial by a Federal Government in the run-up to self-government.
Everywhere you read, even if you go back to the task force committee that was chaired by Mr Craig, I think, it was necessary for financial arrangements to be finalised and for a financial agreement to be established between the ACT and the Federal Government if we were going to have a fair and reasonable financial arrangement following self-
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