Page 1212 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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Vision is needed to expand and diversify the economy. New businesses must be attracted or generated. Our financial assets and their management, both now and in the future, must be considered in a strategic sense. We have to look at where we are going and how we are going to get there. That is the message that is coming from the Grants Commission. I did not just make it up; the Grants Commission is sending us a very clear message of what is expected of us.
Under those circumstances, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is not good enough for the Government simply to go and hide in its bunker. The potential impact on every member of our community is immense. It is a very personal impact that is going to be felt. The people are entitled to know what must be done; where new or additional taxes are to fall and who is going to pay them; where reduction or elimination of services is to occur and who is going to feel the consequences of that; what borrowing is necessary and how it will be repaid and by whom. These are fundamental questions that every one of us is entitled to ask, and we are entitled to know the answers.
The Follett Government claims to be consultative. Now is the time to consult, for them to put their money where their mouth is while the budget is being developed. I believe that there are very few people in Canberra who will accept merely being told the bad news after all the decisions have been made, when those decisions will affect them so profoundly. The Government has to start coming clean. It claims to be consultative. We are now being faced with a major problem of dimensions far exceeding anything that has been dealt with in any previous year, perhaps with the exception of the year in which the Alliance Government brought down its budget and made an $80m adjustment in one year, and to do that we had to close a hospital and close some schools. Does this sound familiar? We had to close a hospital and close some schools to achieve an $80m change in one year. That is what you are confronted with now and - - -
Mr Lamont: Which schools will you close?
MR KAINE: I am asking you which ones you are going to close, because that is what you are going to be confronted with. You tell us - - -
Mr Lamont: No; you are the one proposing it. No; you want to close them.
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
MR KAINE: You tell us what the options are. We have an idea of the order of magnitude of the problem. You tell us what the options are, as you see them. You put forward your suggestions as to how this gap can be closed. Do not sit on it behind your closed doors on the fifth floor until the taxes go up by 10 per cent and the hospital beds are reduced by another 100 and you do have to close four or five schools. You are the ones who claim to be consultative. You are the ones who were critical of the Alliance Government for doing things without consulting with the public. Put your money where your mouth is and start telling the taxpayer and the consumer out there what the penalties are going to be to implement these recommendations of the Grants Commission. We can be sure that the Commonwealth will pick them up. There is very little likelihood that they will not. There will be a major impact on virtually every citizen living in this Territory. It is still five or six months away. We are entitled to know what you intend to do. Hiding behind the door and saying that it is budget confidential is not good enough.
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