Page 2150 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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very much like a family budget. If you have an income of $30,000 a year you cannot have a $50,000 a year lifestyle. If you do, you borrow money and you just go into more and more hock, and that is simply not a way to run a responsible government.
One thing that I think this Alliance Government has done and one thing the remaining members of the Government, the remaining seven of us, will continue to do, in the interests of the Territory, is exercise financial responsibility. At last count I think the Federal Government owed us about $800m - money which they promised just before self-government. I do not think we will ever see that. They still have $50m of our money in a trust account. There are people here today who are blaming this Government for some of the hard decisions it has had to make. I think more properly the blame should be laid at the door of the Federal Government because we are in hard economic times. All of Australia is in hard economic times.
Significantly, this community in the ACT is somewhat better off than the rest of Australia. I think that says something for the economic management of the Chief Minister, the Liberal and No Self Government parties and, formerly, the Alliance Government. Indeed, that is something which we would seek to continue. Of course, as other members have said, it is up to this Assembly whether, in fact, we continue as a minority government. I would be somewhat surprised if the situation was, in fact, different.
Mr Speaker, perhaps it is regrettable that an event like this has to occur. I do not think it will turn out to be so dreadfully significant. It is something that probably was coming for some time, given the differences of views amongst the then Alliance. Rest assured that the seven members of the Government, the Liberal Party members and the others - I am sure I can speak for my colleagues Craig Duby and Carmel Maher - will continue to do the job and exercise financial responsibility so that this Territory remains on a stable footing. The Labor Party, in their smugness, think they will take over at the next election, in February 1992. If they do, in fact, take over they will inherit a very financially stable Territory. I think it would have been somewhat different had they continued in power in 1989 when the Alliance Government took over in December.
MR BERRY (11.52): I rise to speak on this issue with some joy because I think it is about time. In fact, it is past the time it should have been done. I just touch for a few moments on what the Minister for Health said, because I think he typifies all of the problems with the Alliance Government. Most of them go back to bad management. He has today persisted with the illusion - I suggest, Mr Speaker, that it is a self-illusion - that everything is all right with what they have done in our hospital and education systems.
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