Page 2262 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 15 September 1992
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At the same time, we have required the ACT Government Service to increase its overall expenditure on training by 0.5 per cent of the salary budget this year and for each of the years in the forward estimates. Managers must have up-to-date information on the deployment of their staff and on the associated costs if they are to use their staff in the most efficient way. This budget provides $3.8m this year, with a further $1m next year, to implement a new human resource management system. The cost of office accommodation and energy use in government buildings has also been targeted, with a view to achieving savings in rental and operating costs.
To conclude, Madam Speaker, this is a budget about protecting Canberra's future. We have delivered on our social justice principles and accommodated the increasing pressure on our community support services. We have recognised the fundamental need for jobs and have provided additional funding for employment and training schemes. This budget is the first of a three-year program to honour our election commitments, and our new policies reflect those commitments. All of this has been despite a 6 per cent cut in the Commonwealth general revenue assistance.
Program managers have been required to pursue gains in efficiency, rather than reductions in the quality of services. We have recognised that there are long-term social, environmental and economic advantages to urban renewal, and have built its implementation into this budget. Our revenue measures announced last June, together with the single tax increase contained in this budget, have been broad-based and generally align the ACT with other States such as New South Wales and Victoria. Through these various strategies, and through a balancing of our priorities, we have produced a restrained recurrent budget. Within this budget we have even recognised liabilities, such as superannuation, that are accruing today.
This is a balanced recurrent budget. It does not have a legacy of borrowings for ongoing activities which would burden future Canberrans. We have also brought down a capital budget which, through a modest borrowing program, recognises that the provision of jobs is one of the single most important issues facing Canberra and the nation. Madam Speaker, I commend the budget to the Assembly.
I present an explanatory memorandum to the Bill, and the following papers:
Budget Overview 1992-93 (Budget paper No. 2).
Capital Works 1992-93 (Budget paper No. 4).
Environmental Budget Statement 1992-93 (Supplementary Budget Information Paper No. 2).
Program Information and Estimates 1992-93 (Budget paper No. 3).
Women's Budget Statement 1992-93 (Supplementary Budget Information Paper No. 1).
1992-93 Budget - Media statements.
1992-93 Budget - Protecting Canberra's future - pamphlet.
Debate (on motion by Mr Kaine) adjourned.
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