Page 1528 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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The Treasurer also gave no indication of how the expenditure blow-outs in elements of the community services program will be funded. If funds are being diverted by finding savings in other elements of the program, then the Assembly should be informed. The Treasurer did not explain what will be, in his words, the "other economies" which "will be sought" from the education budget in order to deal with the entirely predictable failure of the Alliance Government's school closure program to achieve savings. I would ask, Mr Speaker: How is the Government going to fund the additional $1m for bushfire control? How are they going to fund their inability to implement some of their restructuring initiatives and their poor estimation of wage increases?
I should reiterate, Mr Speaker, that I am pleased that Mr Kaine has provided an update on the implementation of the ACT budget. The information that he has provided is indeed useful. I also do not oppose the view that the budget must change throughout the year to reflect changing circumstances. That is only commonsense. But what I do oppose is that the budget should be viewed simply as budget estimates, as a broad outline which can be changed at the Government's whim. While the Assembly does provide broad appropriations to expenditure programs, it does so on the basis of the information on the detailed expenditure of those programs provided to it by the Government.
I believe that the Government of the ACT has an obligation to this Assembly and to the people of the ACT to keep them informed of changes to the program expenditure outlined in the budget. I believe that such an open approach to the budget would be in the best interests of good government in the Territory.
Mr Speaker, I would like now to turn to some of the initiatives which Mr Kaine announced in his statement. As I stated earlier, most of these initiatives relate to the reallocation of capital funds as a result of delays in a number of major construction projects. The Labor Party supports the action being taken by the Government to ensure that these funds do not remain unspent.
The current and the prospective economic climate in the ACT, as elsewhere in Australia, requires that action be taken. The point must be made clearly, however, that the decision to reallocate these funds does not provide any real assistance to the economy above what could already have been expected from the original budget. There are in fact no additional funds being allocated. Mr Speaker, given that this is the case, it is hard to justify Mr Kaine's claim that these decisions will be an additional benefit to the ACT.
I would also urge the Government to carefully consider its capital expenditure program. They must be aware - I do not see how they could not be aware - of the increasing concern being expressed in the community over the proliferation of
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