Page 3559 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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There have been substantial cuts to the public sector. There will be something like 520 jobs lost and I think that is simply not acceptable.
Mr Moore: Is that because it is not enough or it is too many?
MR DUBY: No, I think it is not acceptable, particularly when it is not spelt out how these cuts are going to be achieved. As Mr Collaery said, there seems to be no allocation of funding that I can find for redundancy packages, et cetera; so clearly it is intended that this will be on a natural attrition basis. Frankly, I think that is unachievable.
That brings me to the other point that I was going to make, namely, that the bottom line is that this supposedly balanced budget is based on a number of predictions. Those predictions are, of course, things like a large reduction in the public sector; a large reduction in supposed areas, as Mr Kaine pointed out; a substantial cut of almost some $20m in the health field, which I do not think will be able to be achieved; and a 20 per cent across-the-board cut in travel expenditure. Well, I have learnt from experience; you will find that that will not be achieved.
Mr Connolly: We will achieve it. We will set a ministerial example, you see.
MR DUBY: I wish they would set ministerial examples and refrain from going to party conferences in Hobart. As I said, those things are going to be very difficult to achieve. Whilst it looks good today when you say, "Oh, well, we have a balanced budget", I do not think that at the end of the day that is going to be achievable. There is a massive cut in the health spending. There are cuts, really, across the board in a whole range of areas.
What I regard as the worst example of trying to balance the books is the transfer of funding from the capital works program onto the recurrent side. I think that is a big mistake. I think it is a foolish way to go about it. You would have been better off to borrow the money and put it into your capital works program because, as sure as night follows day, a reduction of almost $20m in the capital works program is going to lead to a loss of at least 600 to 700 jobs in the construction industry. That is something which we simply cannot afford at this stage. I think it is very irresponsible of the Government to adopt that line. I know that it would never have been allowed to get through whilst I was in the ministry.
Mr Acting Speaker, I think this, frankly, is not a good budget. It is a budget which, in my view, is indicative of a government that does not really know what it is doing. It is an uncaring budget. I think this budget will burden the Canberra community with higher taxes, with fewer jobs and services and definitely with a reduced standard of living.
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