Page 3477 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 25 November 1992
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continually address that reducing environment, the strategy that this Government has adopted has been quite clear. Our strategy, to reiterate, is to continue with the balanced recurrent budgets. I put that very high on my priorities because I think it is extremely irresponsible, Madam Speaker, to have to borrow money to meet the day to day expenses of government, and I will continue with my intention of balancing that recurrent budget.
We have also, as part of that strategy, continually sought efficiency in the way that we deliver services in the ACT. Members of the Liberal Party have made light of that efficiency drive. I think they are very wrong to do that. It is a difficult matter indeed to demand efficiencies from organisations and agencies year after year, and, as we have done, to say to them, "Here is a strategy for three years and you know that you are going to have to get efficiencies for each of these three years". That is a difficult process and it places a great burden on managers. I think that for members opposite to dismiss that as nothing is to demonstrate their own ignorance of just how difficult it is to continually reduce your expenditure, deliver the same level of service, ensure that the quality of your service is intact, and know that you are facing that same situation year after year.
Madam Speaker, a further part of our strategy has been urban renewal, and our stated goal of moving towards having 50 per cent of our housing delivered in urban renewal sites and 50 per cent in greenfield sites is an important part of that strategy. I have said that we will keep borrowings to a reasonable level and I am very pleased indeed that this year we were able to keep new borrowings well down. I think, again, that that is a responsible action to take. As I am sure members are aware, borrowings have to be serviced, and when a government indulges in major borrowings, large borrowings, it has to find the money to service those borrowings on the recurrent side of its budget and that means that it has to deliver fewer services.
So, that is the strategy we have adopted. I know that it is not exciting for members opposite. It is just plain good management, so there is nothing there for them to really kick and scream about. There is no great drama about it. It is a reasonable and balanced approach and I know that they find that difficult. Madam Speaker, it is an approach that I will continue to take because I think it works and because I think it continues to reassure the community that this Territory is in good economic shape; and it particularly reassures the people that the Liberals apparently want reassured, namely, the business community, that this is a good climate for investment, a good climate in which to do business. They do not want to face economic pyrotechnics; they want a good, sound, predictable, solid environment, and that is what we are providing them with here in the ACT. I expect that over time even the Liberals might see the advantages of that approach.
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