Page 2131 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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place on this motion, which is merely a procedural motion. However, since the Opposition has chosen to debate it, I am quite happy to do that and to take up some of the points that the Leader of the Opposition has made.
I think it is fair to say that 18 months ago the members of the Alliance went into government with good intentions, with high ideals and with a series of policies which I firmly believe were for the good of this community. I understand that the Leader of the Opposition would take this opportunity to vent her spleen, having been removed from office and having spent 18 months in opposition. This is an opportunity for her to do that and I am quite happy for her to do so. It is not the first time that the same tirade has been presented to the Assembly.
The fact is, however, that the Opposition, both when they were in government and in opposition, have refused bluntly to face up to the economic and financial realities that confront the Territory. It simply is not true that we can maintain the old education system, the old health system and all of the other systems that were in place when we were granted self-government at those levels of expenditure, because the money simply is not there. That is a matter of fact, a matter of reality.
In two days' time there is to be the second meeting of the Premiers Conference since I became Chief Minister, and the Commonwealth made it quite clear that it was reducing the amount of money that it was prepared to put into the Territory. That meant that we had to reduce our expenditures. As Treasurer, I made an adjustment, a responsible adjustment, in this year's budget of $80m. That consisted partly of putting up the revenue that we were receiving and partly reducing the expenditure side of the budget. I believe that they were responsible decisions, and they were decisions that were made in the interests of this community. Mr Keating talks about pain and he is talking about the economy at large in Australia. We are very much a part of that economy and we have the added burden of a reduction in Commonwealth money to be spent in this Territory. You cannot make change without some pain.
I know that there has been a resentment against closing the schools. I know that there is a resentment against closing the Royal Canberra Hospital. But the fact is that we could never afford three hospitals in Canberra, even when the third hospital was built. The Commonwealth knew that. Anybody who sits down and examines the health delivery system in Canberra today must acknowledge that we cannot afford and we do not need three hospitals.
Now, you can take a different view. I accept that you have a different view, and I respect your right to express it. But I happen to be the Treasurer and I have had to make what I believe were the necessary decisions to get our financial house in order. I did it with schools; I did it
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