Page 3965 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 23 November 1993
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disabilities into mainstream schools. We have not heard anyone over there mention that, but we have done that in an attempt to increase social justice in a reducing climate, and I think that we should get credit for that. By contrast, Madam Speaker, with what I believe has been a very responsible financial management regime, we have heard nothing from members opposite except reducing taxes, spending more money on whatever their pet projects happen to be, and, I presume, adopting some sort of a Bankcard mentality to adjust to the inevitable reductions in Commonwealth funding.
MADAM SPEAKER: Your time has expired, Chief Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES (4.50): May I, first of all, address this bunkum that we have heard from the Chief Minister and Treasurer about the economic performance of the ACT. She has made the most outrageous statements. "My performance as Treasurer is the best in Australia", she says - there is a certain sort of Thatcheresque air about this, I might say - "and the good economic performance of the ACT is my personal achievement or the achievement of my Government". Madam Speaker, correct me if I am wrong, but has it not been the case that for many, many years the economic performance of the ACT has been much better than that of other jurisdictions in this country, attributable in large part to the very generous situation of the ACT with respect to the Commonwealth Government's location here. Why is it that the ACT's present Chief Minister somehow gets the credit for having achieved all these things which, in fact, are the achievement of several governments over many years? I think it is, frankly, gross arrogance on the part of this Chief Minister to claim that everything about the ACT economic performance which is presently so great is the achievement of this Chief Minister and Treasurer, Rosemary Follett.
If it is the achievement of the Chief Minister, then perhaps she will also take responsibility for some other things to do with the ACT's present economic outlook, like unemployment. Let us look back to unemployment, let us say, three years ago while Mr Kaine was Chief Minister. When Mr Kaine was Chief Minister unemployment stood at 4.4 per cent of the working population. That represented 6,900 people in the ACT. In September of this year, on the latest available figures, unemployment under Ms Follett, Australia's greatest Treasurer, stood at 7.4 per cent and 12,800 Canberrans were out of work. Is that your work too, Ms Follett? Are you the architect of this increase in unemployment? If so, you have just proved our amendment; you have just supported our amendment. You should resign. Any Chief Minister who has engineered or who is responsible for a doubling, almost, of unemployment in the space of three years deserves to go, and so, Madam Speaker, I think she should.
Madam Speaker, the fact of life is that on education, in particular, this Government's performance has been, from beginning to end, nothing less than utterly and completely disgraceful. This Government said, and particularly Mr Wood said, that there is a certain inevitability about the need to make reductions in outlays in the ACT. We all know that we have to reduce outlays, particularly in education in the ACT. That is what Mr Wood told us a little while ago - wherever he is. He accused Mr Moore of complacency in not being prepared to face up to that fact, and not having asked him any questions when he flagged this concept of having to reduce education in the last few months through headlines in the Canberra Times.
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