Page 3465 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
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in respect of major developments. The greatest success the Follett Government has had in planning is to bring to fruition the process culminating in the $19m casino premium and the opening of the interim casino, and even that was the outcome of a process set in train by the Alliance Government. Even that success, Madam Speaker, is no substitute for planned, broad-ranging development.
There has been vacillation about whether the Government will resume land development. That procrastination has produced uncertainty and is constraining private enterprise participation. If there is a return to public land development, the Government will impose considerable costs on the community, reduce the pace of development and drive both business and employment out of Canberra.
Major initiatives have been proposed for Gungahlin and elsewhere by the private sector, but they have been rejected - not for economic reasons, but for obscure reasons including, I am sure, party political considerations. The future of Acton and Kingston is similarly hostage to which faction is most powerful in the ALP at the moment. Inaction and lack of direction in planning and development have encouraged middle class, left wing radicals in the ALP to exert undue political influence that will be detrimental to the ACT. That group - I think we can call them the unthinking group - would stop all development, stop private development and turn Canberra into a world heritage theme park. The only activity in Canberra would be in the public sector, and the local government sector at that. Madam Speaker, Canberra needs and deserves better than that.
The Follett Government cannot continue to hide behind the illusion that they have a program of action. Their legislative program has been virtually non-existent. They have passed legislation that injures the community. They have passed legislation promoting the sectional views of small communities of opinion. I refer the Assembly to the rates and land tax amendments, the Animal Welfare Bill and the decriminalisation of drugs of dependence. It is this Government that has secretly promoted proposals to reduce the age of sexual consent to 13 years. The Government's program, if it can be given that title credibly, is ad hoc and without consistent direction. It cannot address the major issues in this Territory. They are unemployment, economic recovery and development. It reflects no long-term thinking. I hear some gurgling over there. Perhaps they will stop gurgling and start doing.
The Government cannot provide clear direction for the planning of a future Canberra that retains its pre-eminence as a better city, a beautiful city, when it pursues conflicting agendas and fails to endorse proposals that are clearly beneficial. I refer to the decision not to proceed with the Gungahlin urban village. It cannot even govern its own house, and I am not referring to the nine factions that exist in the eight-member Caucus. The separation of the ACT from the Commonwealth Public Service has not been given any impetus or direction. The Government appears to support the separate local service but cannot move its own public servants to produce the legislation to bring it about.
In the budget process we are asked to examine the performance of the Government and its policies. Those policies and programs that, through hard work, succeed efficiently and effectively in the public interest should, of course, be acclaimed; but those activities which are clearly ineffective should cease. No competent manager continues to pay for activities or programs that fail to deliver and fail to meet expectations. The same approach must be taken with government and its programs.
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