Page 512 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 May 1992

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• the anti-Canberra attitudes elsewhere in the country.

3 Liberal philosophy and broad policy

Liberal philosophy, especially as embodied in Fightback!, aims to build on the positive elements of the above list and eliminate or ameliorate the negatives. A succinct statement of this philosophy needs to be distilled and oriented to the ACT situation. Most of the items can be drawn directly from Fightback! and the key watchwords are:

• competition, not privilege;

• choice, not restrictions and regulations;

• consumer benefits, not vested interests or protecting incumbents;

• individual self-reliance, not the nanny state mentality; and

• incentive to strive and succeed.

4 Some specific issues

Here are some specific issues. They are in no particular order and are far from complete. .

• Action buses. An absolute disgrace. Not just the recent dispute but the whole work practice nonsense and overall financial performance. Why not a Liberal Party position paper on Action which diagnoses .the problems sad suggests appropriate solutions? Quantify the losses per taxpayer. Use ether catchy measures of non performance which will outrage the community. Obtain comparative performance data from other States, public and private, to illustrate. Speak to local private operators in Canberra and Queanbeyan. Answer: privatise, perhaps with specific subsidies where needed for clearly identified ."community service obligations."

• ACT Milk. Another Fort. Why should we have a government controlled system of milk delivery? What are the costs and benefits? I tried to interest Tony de Dominica in this during the election campaign but he didnt take up the offer. Drawing on work we have recently completed on milk distribution. systems in other States, we estimate, and could quantify, that there are large excessive costs in what Canberra pay for milk than in a more competitive situation (even despite the frequent assertion that Canberra retail milk prices are the lowest in Australia). The present incumbents do very well out of the system and would fight hard to retain i±.

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