Page 805 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 16 June 1992
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The Commonwealth, in making its initial offer of grant to the ACT, in fact dropped that transitional amount back to $10m. In the negotiations in the course of the Premiers Conference I indicated that I thought that was a harsh outcome for the ACT. It seemed to me that the Commonwealth was asking the ACT to accept a reduction of 8 per cent over our revenue grant from the previous year and I thought that that was an outcome which would be extremely difficult for the ACT to live with, so I argued strongly that we should obtain some further recognition of our transitional status. The outcome from the Premiers Conference was that the Prime Minister agreed to pay a further $5m in transitional allowance, so the ACT's total special funding was in fact $15m.
Our general revenue assistance, therefore, is reduced by $16m over that which we got in 1991-92; that is, from $410m in 1991-92 to $394m in 1992-93. That represents a 6.5 per cent reduction in our general assistance. It is in stark contrast, I believe, to the increased assistance offered to all of the other States and the Northern Territory. I think that it does place the ACT's budget in a difficult position. We have $16m less this year than we obtained last year. Madam Speaker, I might add that our general purpose capital assistance is at the same money level as in 1991-92 - that is $33.4m for the ACT - and the Territory's global borrowing limit will be $71m.
Mr Kaine has asked further, Madam Speaker, what the impact on our capital works program will be. I am sure members are aware that that capital works program has been referred to the Assembly's committee for review. I certainly look forward to their assessment of it. I believe that the capital works program that the Government has put forward firstly provides for the necessary facilities for the community that we have an obligation to provide. Secondly, it is aimed at ensuring some sort of continuity of employment in the construction industry and attempts to avoid the peaks and troughs that we have experienced in previous years. It is the maximum program that I believe we can afford, and, Madam Speaker, as I have said before, I will contemplate some modest borrowings for capital works. The exact amount of those borrowings - - -
Mr Kaine: "Prudent" is the right word - prudent borrowings.
MS FOLLETT: Prudent borrowings; thank you, Mr Kaine. I appreciate your guidance on these matters and I support the term "prudent". The exact amount of those borrowings is a matter that is still being worked upon and is obviously subject to the Assembly committee's view on that capital works program. If they want it drastically expanded or drastically reduced, that obviously will have a bearing on that final figure.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. That answer was useful and informative as far as it goes; but, looking at the forward estimates that were published in December, the expectation for general purpose grants from the Commonwealth was for a total of $389.2m. So, in fact you ended up with more than you expected when you wrote your forward estimates. But beyond those general purpose grants, both revenue and capital, we also expected, according to the forward estimates, to receive $211.6m in special purpose grants. That is $186.6m for special purpose revenue and $25m for special purpose capital. Can we assume that that money will be forthcoming, or has that been varied also?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I will first clarify the forward estimates figure for the Commonwealth's revenue grant. That figure published last December has been adjusted since for issues like the Grants Commission update.
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