Page 2159 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991
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Mr Deputy Speaker, the Rally leaves this Government as dishonourably as it entered it. We hope that the community of Canberra gets the opportunity to judge who should be governing this Territory as soon as possible. This lot have lost all claims to govern in the interests of the community, and they should go.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (12.16): I have heard some venom in the debate this morning. Most of it has been directed, of course, towards the Residents Rally, in particular towards Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen and, for that matter, Dr Kinloch as well. I think it behoves us at this stage to recognise just what the Residents Rally, as a member of the Alliance Government, has been able to achieve in the time it has been in government, in power - in other words, since December 1989.
I think it needs to be pointed out to those opposite, because they cannot comprehend this, that the first thing that the Residents Rally achieved, as did the other members of the Alliance Government, was a balanced budget, which the Labor Party was incapable of doing. The simple fact is, and the records will show, that when we took over government the ACT budget was heading for a $40m deficit under the former fabulous Treasurer Follett. The figure was $40m in the red.
Mr Moore: You said last year that you actually had a surplus from the Follett budget. You claimed a surplus last year. What are you talking about? You are going round in circles. You got a surplus out of the Follett budget.
MR DUBY: As a result of that, upon taking power, in February 1990, as Mr Moore well knows, we took action, which at the time he bitterly opposed, imposing, for example, a 4 per cent reduction in expenditure across all areas of the budget. Do you remember that, Mr Moore? Perhaps you remember that. Actions like that enabled us to bring in a balanced budget. I think that indicates the responsible action that members of the Residents Rally have taken in the time they have been in government.
I think it is also worthwhile pointing out some of the other things that the Residents Rally, as part of the Alliance Government, has been able to achieve. Many, many reforms have been initiated through this Government and, in particular, in some cases through the direct action of Mr Collaery and his fellow members of the Rally. In the social justice area there have been many reforms. We have domestic violence reform. We have gun law reforms; we now have the best gun laws in Australia. He has brought in anti-discrimination Bills. He has achieved adoption reforms. He has achieved human rights reforms, such as the rights of the child.
Ms Follett: Not yet.
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