Page 666 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, I think that that is an unparliamentary word. I would ask you to withdraw it, please.
Mr Kaine: Madam Speaker, the lexicon of - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: I am sorry, Mr Kaine; you are not permitted to argue the case. I have asked you to withdraw it.
Mr Kaine: Madam, I withdraw.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Kaine.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, as I have said, the members opposite, of course, choose to ignore all of those activities which are paying some dividends. I have never made any secret of the fact that the ACT is influenced by national factors in employment. We are, of course, looking to national recovery to progress over the coming years, because it will also add to the recovery in the ACT. We have made no secret of that. We cannot do it all ourselves.
I would like to make one final point, and that is that Labor believes in the value of the public sector as well as the private sector. I have always regarded the ACT work force and the ACT economy as being a unique partnership between public and private sector interests. I believe that that has worked extremely well. We are seeing a range of cooperative ventures between the government and private sectors which are leading to employment. I put it to members that the National Museum of Australia is perhaps the most exciting of those ventures currently on our agenda. I certainly look forward to the commencement of that project and to our Government playing a part in it, because it will, of course, lead to greater employment, lead to greater tourism and lead to greater status for our national capital.
But the Liberals, of course, saw no good whatsoever in the public sector. In the recent Federal election, the promise of the Liberals was, on their own figures, to cut 3,200 jobs from Commonwealth public sector employment in the ACT. This would have led to a further loss of 1,900 jobs in the private sector. The promise of the Liberals was to reduce Canberra to a ghost town. The promise of the Liberals was to cut us off at the knees. I will stick to my guns in saying that the ACT needs a strong and vibrant public sector as well as private sector. I was quite amused to hear Mr Humphries recently saying that he thought the Liberals' stand on the public sector was one of the reasons for their total lack of favour in the ACT. He was proposing at that time that the Liberals ought to perhaps review their stance on the public sector. Well, it is not before time. This town relies upon, as I say, an active and vibrant public sector as well as private sector.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Sitting suspended from 4.59 to 8.00 pm
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