Page 3204 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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those deferred rates from 12 per cent to 9 per cent, making that deferment scheme much more attractive to them. We have made further significant concessions which will benefit aged people. I think the extension of the electricity concession period through the winter months is a concession that will be appreciated by many older people in Canberra, who remain in their homes a great deal more than some of the younger people do.
MADAM SPEAKER: Chief Minister, it is 3 o'clock. Pursuant to the resolution of the Assembly of 14 September 1993, the debate on the Appropriation Bill will be resumed.
APPROPRIATION BILL 1993-94
Debate resumed from 14 September 1993, on motion by Ms Follett:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (3.00): Madam Speaker, this week, more than ever, we can see the need for a smaller, more efficient, more collegiate style of government in the ACT. This week the people of Canberra could well be justified in questioning the wisdom of self-government at all and asking why it continues to cost them more and more of their hard-earned pay-packet every time this Government delivers a budget. To the majority of Canberrans, this budget represents all that is odious about self-government. The people's fear in 1989 of ending up with an inefficient government that continued to cost more and more, with no direction and without the guts to make the hard decisions, is exactly what the people seem to have got.
This is a gutless budget. It is also a cowardly budget. It is a budget that reveals the extent to which these people opposite are prepared to go to cover up the truth about how inefficient they really are, how they lack any kind of vision and have no plans for the future of this city. The budget is about more spending, more taxes, more borrowing and more tinkering at the edges. It is about avoiding the tough decisions in case somebody is offended, particularly the union mates, even if in the long term we are all worse off. The budget is devoid of imagination, of courage, of vision, or, for that matter, of any admirable quality at all.
Labor is fond of referring to the true believers. Remember, Ms Follett, they are the ones you are taking for granted: Mr and Mrs Tuggeranong, Mr and Mrs Belconnen, Mr and Mrs Gungahlin - these are the people you have failed in this budget. This budget brings with it massive tax slugs which impact greatly on ordinary Canberrans doing their very best just to make a living. If you are a parent, your child will be in a bigger class at school with fewer resources. If you are a motorist, you will pay more for your fuel, you will pay more for your vehicle registration, and you will certainly pay more for your parking. The motorists will also have their hip-pockets hit every year with automatic indexation of these tax hikes - all this on top of the fuel hikes Mr Keating slugged the motorist with in his budget only a month ago.
No matter how you look at it, this Labor Government has no mandate to increase the fuel franchise fee. By doing so, they have misled the people of Canberra. Last year this Government set up a working party inquiry into petrol pricing in the ACT, and over and over again they have heaped scorn upon small
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