Page 4404 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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That was from Hansard back in 1989. I am sorry now that I have to say, "I told you so". The return of the facility to Mrs Kelly, especially as we do not appear to have a proper lease from the Commonwealth, is probably the best option for the ACT. It would seem that the statements by Mrs Kelly along the lines of "Haven't we got a deal for you" are something we could well have lived to regret. So, with those brief comments about the Bruce Stadium, Mr Speaker, I would like to close my remarks and commend the report to the Assembly.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.42): I think that Mr Jensen, as chairman of the Estimates Committee, has quite fairly dealt with the subject matter, in particular the processes through which the committee went. He has commented on one particular aspect with which I agree, and that is that in some cases I believe that the committee did not get comprehensive and adequate responses to its questions. The most blatant case of that, of course, was the Minister for Health, although I notice that Mrs Grassby tries to refute that.
Some particular matters arising from the Estimates Committee inquiry concerned me, and I will deal with them quite quickly. I do not think I need to take up too much time. The first and most important of those, I think, is the question of the funding of the private schools. There is a very real concern out there in the private schools community that they have been badly treated in this budget, and I think there is little question that they have.
The problem stems not so much from the Government's decision to reduce the funding; that is a legitimate decision of government when they are in a tight financial situation. I do not argue with that. But I think it can honestly be said that the schools were not consulted on this matter, and this, from a government that claims to be consultative, simply is not good enough.
To impose massive cuts on the schools funding without talking to them first, understanding what its impact on the schools is going to be, and how they are going to operate with such a massive reduction in one year in their funding is simply not good enough. I think that that exemplifies some of the aspects of this budget that we are considering; that there is an element of arbitrariness about it. It is not something that has resulted from the community consultation process that this Government claims. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
The second case of that, I believe, is that relating to the Tourism Commission. Here we are in a recession - everybody now acknowledges that that is the case - and tourism is our strongest industry. It is the one which probably creates more jobs than any other industry in Australia. One would think that in such tough financial and economic times the Government would be doing everything in its power to boost
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