Page 2436 - Week 09 - Thursday, 17 September 1992
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in community life. We also need to show responsibility in the financial administration of these municipal functions, and it is here that we need some clearer direction from the budget process. I support the idea of full cost recovery for these services and encourage the Government in supporting the efforts of ACTEW to bring the provision of water into line with its other services, that is, operating at a profit, not a loss.
The other area of ACT economic activity that I note the Government has given active encouragement to is tourism. Again, as a member of the Assembly's Tourism Committee I am pleased that there has been a $2m increase set aside for marketing the ACT as a tourism destination through the Tourism Commission. In conclusion, I feel that this budget sets a fairly straight path for the ACT for the next 12 months. We are still feeling our way through the recession, and the emphasis in this budget on employment and economic growth has been appropriate. I hope that as the economy recovers from the current hard times there will be scope for further enhancing the community and social welfare aspects of the Government's economic blueprint.
MR LAMONT (3.54): Madam Speaker, I suppose that it is always a question of measuring what one hears in this Assembly from one side of the house against what one hears from the other. I am afraid that the budget response this afternoon from the Leader of the Opposition reminded me of that old adage: The more things change, the more they stay the same. I will go on to elaborate on that. For the edification of the house, I should indicate where that came from. It is a quote from a Visconti film, Il Gatto Pardo, which means "the grey cat". Unfortunately, the response this afternoon from the Leader of the Opposition, in my estimation, means that the title I conferred on him previously - the Silver Fox - has to be adjusted to reflect more accurately the movie from which my quote came. I am afraid that it now rates with the grey cat, and that is unfortunate. However, it could be propitious because the person who played the lead in that film was Anthony Quinn, and late in the afternoon, when the light in the corner is coming through the right way and the Leader of the Opposition flashes across the room, there is a passing resemblance to Anthony Quinn - who played a colonel in that film, by the way.
When I say that the more things change the more they stay the same, it is not that Mr Kaine has not been wont to change his tune from time to time. Any reader of the ACIL document will testify to that. It is just that Mr Kaine's changes always involve coming back full circle. The reason for this is clear. Despite the meek protestations by the local Liberals, the Federal coalition has effectively made the ACT branch of the Liberals redundant. We can all remember when Colonel Kaine got his orders in May this year. Allow me briefly to remind the Assembly of what those orders said.
Mr De Domenico: On a point of order, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I respectfully say to you that, notwithstanding the interesting things that may have been contained in the ACIL document, what that has to do with the budget I am blowed if I know. Would you please rule on that?
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Grassby): Mr De Domenico, I will let Mr Lamont go further. He has not quite finished the sentence, and I think we should hear the rest of it.
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