Page 2468 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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What effect does Mr Dawkins's budget have on the one Ms Follett has to bring down in about four weeks' time? Ms Follett is confronting two fundamental problems. First, she has to close the budget gap, and that means getting expenditures down. I note that, despite Mr Dawkins's fine words, he actually is increasing his expenditure by nearly 4 per cent this year, so where is the restraint? I wonder whether Ms Follett is going to take the same line and actually increase her expenditure as well. The second thing she has to do is to get the ACT economy, particularly the small business sector, out of the grave Mr Dawkins seems bent on digging for it. Without that, there is going to be no growth and there are going to be no jobs, because that is where the jobs have to come from. She has to do something real about generating jobs - not a furphy like the York Park project that is doing more for Sydney and Melbourne than it is for the ACT.
It is hard to be confident about Ms Follett's ability to do any of these things. She has mismanaged last year's budget, and again I cite the fact that she failed to spend $30m that the Assembly appropriated for her.
Mr Connolly: Spend more, spend more.
MR KAINE: No, spend the money that you asked for. You asked for it, the Assembly appropriated it, and you did not spend it: $30m worth of services you said you were going to provide for this community and you did not provide them. Poor management, Mr Connolly, poor management. You could not manage your way out of a soaking wet brown paper bag. Ms Follett failed to spend the $30m. On the other hand, she got a windfall profit of $30m, which she also claims to be the result of good management. As I said before to Mr Connolly: Codswallop!
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order. I realise that this is Mr Kaine's MPI; but I had read it as being related to the Federal budget, not the ACT budget.
MR KAINE: It is the effects on the ACT. Do you not want to hear about them? I will bet that you do not. The effects are going to be reflected in your budget. Do you not believe that?
MADAM SPEAKER: Perhaps you could make the connections a little clearer, Mr Kaine.
MR KAINE: Do you not believe that it is going to have any effect on your budget? I am going to ask you some questions in a minute and we will see how you answer them.
Mr Lamont: Mr Kaine, you should not allow Mrs Carnell's staff to write your speeches.
MR KAINE: I would not take any comfort from whoever writes yours, Mr Lamont. Ms Follett has to make some genuine gains in expenditure reduction in 1993-94, and she has not made any up until now. There have been no major management decisions made to save money. There have been some fortuitous events where they have not spent some money, but the fictions of budget reductions in health and education must be turned into reality. This is the third year in a row that the Chief Minister will come in here and say, "We are achieving
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