Page 2133 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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So, you cannot increase your revenue and you have a reduced expectation of money from the Commonwealth. The conclusion is that you have to reduce the expenditure side of your budget. If you are not going to close a hospital that you do not need and cannot afford, and if you are not going to attack the education budget - you cannot achieve the order of magnitude of savings that are required by just looking at the administrative elements of the education system; there is simply not enough money in that category to do it - you have to start looking at and making the hard decisions.
That is what this Government has done, and while I am Treasurer and Chief Minister I will continue to take that responsible view. I know that it is unpopular in some quarters, but I am prepared to make those hard decisions and I am prepared to take the criticism of the people who suffer from them. I have done it already for a year and a half and I will continue to do that. I will remain responsible and I will not put this Territory into the financial pit that Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia are in.
I believe that that is responsible. I believe that it is prudent. I believe that if anybody really analyses the facts they cannot criticise that view. I restate that the view put forward by the Labor Party in opposition, that they are simply going to restore what was in place two years ago, is a pipedream. They cannot deliver on that promise. I think that if the electorate believes that they can they are going to be sadly disappointed.
The fact is, Mr Speaker - and we can debate this for days on end, I am sure - that within the Alliance there were, right from the beginning, different views about what should be done and how it should be done. I think that for 18 months we have provided stable government. We have provided good government. We have made responsible decisions. The time has come when some members of the Alliance find that they can no longer work within the constraints of government, that they cannot agree with the rest of the members of the Government on what should be done. When we come to that point you must accept that we have come to the parting of the ways.
The members of the Rally have now to determine how they are responsibly going to approach the business of being members of this Assembly while not being members of the Government. I have no hard feelings about the Rally. They have different views from mine, just as the Labor Party does. I respect the Labor Party's views. I respect the views of the members of the Rally, but we simply cannot work together any more. What we have done this morning is simply a recognition of that fact. The remaining members of the Alliance will continue to govern as long as we have the confidence of this house.
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