Page 3198 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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community within the ACT are not what I would call little in the way of visible results. They are essential reforms - essential to the well-being of this community. They are all areas for which the Social Policy Branch of my department provides all of the support.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I consider that the support offered to the Territory's economic development, to essential employment programs like Jobskills, the Youth Conservation Corps, the new programs we have announced in the budget this week, as well as the services to business through the Business Services Centre and through the marketing of this Territory as a good place to do business, is showing tangible results. I would be very interested indeed to know which of those areas the Canberra Times consider to be expensive luxuries.
That is not to say that my department should not be subject to the same sort of efficiency monitoring as other areas of the ACT service, and indeed that is the case. Like the vast majority of agencies within the ACT, my own department is required to find a 2 per cent reduction in their running costs this year, just as they were last year. They are trying all the time to be more efficient, to produce those tangible results for our community at a reduced cost. I do not believe that it reflects at all well on the journalists involved that they appear to know so little about the role and functions within this administration. I would gladly offer them a guided tour of my department and I will assist them to search out the expensive luxuries, if they have the guts to take up that offer.
Mr Kaine: They might tell you tomorrow. Wait for tomorrow's newspaper.
MS FOLLETT: I will wait with eagerness.
Government Properties - Sales
MR DE DOMENICO: My question without notice is to the Chief Minister. I refer to page 9 of her budget speech, where she says:
A small number of properties have been identified as surplus to Territory needs. Their sale is estimated to raise an extra $11m above the regular land development program in 1993-94.
I ask the Chief Minister: Noting that the only evidence of any receipts from property sales that I and my colleagues have been able to find is on page 202, chapter 9 of the Budget Overview, Budget Paper No. 2, which is $1.95m for the sale of properties required in the asbestos program, where is the other $8.1m? If the Chief Minister cannot find the $8.1m, does she agree that - - -
Mr Connolly: It is in the land program.
MR DE DOMENICO: Just wait a minute.
Mr Connolly: We like to help you, Mr De Domenico. You are so fundamentally misinformed that you need our help.
MR DE DOMENICO: Just wait a minute until I ask the question. Where is the $8.1m on top of the land program the Chief Minister referred to? If it is not there, does she concede that there may be an $8.1m deficiency already in her budget?
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