Page 3547 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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Mr Acting Speaker, I now turn briefly to the private sector. Ms Follett asserts at Budget Paper No. 1, page 24 - she can look it up; she has trouble finding things in her own budget papers - that her budget measures should have minimal impact on economic activity within the Territory. Nothing could be further from the truth. The adverse effects will be considerable and will influence the private sector well beyond this immediate fiscal year.
The direct effect of increases in such taxes as the gas levy, the duty on general insurance transactions, increases in stamp duties and in vehicle registration and transfer costs will be of immediate concern to small business, already struggling to keep afloat. Increases in other imposts such as general rates and water and sewerage rates also impact on business, just as they do on private individuals.
A major impact on business will result from the considerable reduction in the capital works program, and this will be compounded by the lack of Commonwealth works and the slowdown in private sector development and construction. Employer organisations, professional bodies and trade unions generally agree that the reduction in the general level of construction to a new low figure of $750m annually will lead to the loss of about 900 jobs in the industry. The union view is that multiplier effects will see up to four jobs lost in the broader economy for each job lost in the industry itself. We are talking here, potentially, of about 3,500 jobs to go.
The gross effect of this is, of course, beyond the control of the ACT Government, but in such circumstances it would surely be incumbent on the ACT Government to provide a reasonable level of ongoing essential works from within its budget, to provide some continuity at least for the small operator in the industry.
To make no borrowings at all, on the pretext of prudence, is to totally ignore the needs of the community and to use the spurious ground of prudence as justification. Moderate borrowings - and I repeat, moderate borrowings - would have been consistent with the imperatives of responsible financial management and, at the same time, would have provided well-justified support to our struggling private sector. Ms Follett's assurances of the value that she places on the private sector ring hollow indeed.
Mr Acting Speaker, I have spoken of the consultation hoax. Another hoax, and a reprehensible hoax, is the government misrepresentation that this budget does something about jobs for our jobless youth. It does nothing but pay lip-service to jobs for youth. It creates a minor diversion relating to jobs for youth - a few more places in TAFE. But where is the project to create one single job for a youth in this community? Name one project that creates one job for one youth. The results of this budget will be
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