Page 198 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 April 1992
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Ms Follett also clearly needs to be reminded that the foundations of ACT membership of the new National Grid Management Council, of which she is so proud, had been laid at private meetings between Premier Greiner and me and at meetings that I had with other Premiers in Sydney while I was still Chief Minister. They were not the result of any initiative taken by Ms Follett. Our initiative came to fruition during Ms Follett's stewardship; so she claims the credit, of course.
This Government is so lacking in ideas and originality that it is also falsely claiming credit for other projects. The ACT cooperative research centres, which Ms Follett has been claiming credit for lately, had been projects supported and actively encouraged by the Alliance Government. It was that Government and not the Labor Government that offered tangible support to encourage approval of those ACT based centres, and they were approved largely because the Alliance Government undertook to provide significant support for them. I am sure that the Federal Airports Corporation will be amused - or perhaps not - to hear that their proposal for an international air freight operation at the Canberra Airport has now become Ms Follett's proposal.
The statement that the ALP would honour "its" election commitment to extend the job skills program seems to be a direct lift from Prime Minister Keating's One Nation statement which was delivered only at the end of February. So, I do not see how that could have become suddenly a Follett initiative. On this point I would commend to the Government the coalition's Fightback package. It surely cannot be all that bad if the ALP's Prime Minister Keating has started to poach from it. Perhaps Ms Follett will yet claim the credit for that as well.
Lack of originality, lack of honesty and more of the same seem to be the basis for the program of the third Follett Government. Where are the real initiatives for stimulating the economy? Where are the initiatives for creating real jobs for real people? Where are the moves to provide beds in our hospitals - not statistics, not promises, not obfuscation, but beds? We must have a statement of action from this Government instead of simply a statement.
Ms Follett has also made much of her alleged support for, and encouragement of, the private sector. But let us look at the reality rather than the empty but costly rhetoric. The ACT private sector not only is bearing the brunt of the recession but also has been heavily taxed by Labor at a time when government is asking it to expand its base, provide more jobs for the community and enhance the local revenue base. Rather than providing incentives to do these things, Ms Follett and her colleagues have been responsible for slamming the private sector with a payroll tax Bill in 1989, and in 1991 they slammed the private sector again with a regressive one per cent land tax - actions which are hardly conducive to expanding private sector development or investment confidence in the ACT.
What new taxes do they intend to impose in 1992, with our small business sector already on its knees? Who, other than Labor, would remove $1m from the Tourism Commission's marketing budget just at the time when a significant downturn in ACT tourism was already becoming obvious?
Mr De Domenico: And think of putting in a bed tax, too, at the same time. They pulled that out only at the end.
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