Page 6195 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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I do not necessarily disagree with that, but it is certainly at variance with the enunciations made only a few months ago by the Government in relation to expanding the construction program. So, one is left with this view: The Government made a short-term commitment to new constructions, and that had some electoral advantage; but now they are going back to the subsisting and accepted policy of purchasing house-land packages through the normal supply market rather than getting into the construction activity.
Mr Speaker, in the rental bonds area, I understand - and the Minister can correct me if I am wrong - that there are still a very large number of bonds not brought in yet by the office. I can understand the challenges facing the rental bond administration; but there is a clear expectation that all of the budgeted bonds will be lodged, because the forward estimate is based on a near 100 per cent collection of the approximately 19,500 bonds lodged per annum. We have not yet had a report from the Government as to how that process is going, and any comment the Government can make on suggestions that there are up to 6,000 bonds still not lodged would be appreciated by the Assembly. I have no means of verifying those rumours, which may have no substance to them. But the outcome is relevant to the Forward Estimates.
Mr Speaker, the forward estimates for law and order, of course, would interest Mr Stefaniak; but he is clearly not going to address the issue. The outlook for the forward years is:
The provision of police services in the ACT under the Commonwealth-ACT Policing Arrangement will continue to be reviewed over the coming years with longer term objectives for law enforcement in the ACT being addressed.
Community input on the provision of police services will continue to be sought -
and so on. There is a clear implication there that the policing arrangement is going to move towards a long-term objective for law enforcement in the ACT. That is not reflected in the Forward Estimates. The Forward Estimates suggest that the matter will sail on as usual, even though this Government has largely repudiated that arrangement. They repudiated it, of course, in the fact that the terms of the agreement were, for the Bush visit, described as trite on one day and vague on another.
Mr Connolly: I brought home the bacon on that one, Bernard.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Connolly says that he brought home the bacon. If only the Canberra Times could have seen us all here having a friendly laugh with Mr Connolly when he declared his monster victory over the Federal Government.
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