Page 2095 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister recognised in her budget speech to the Assembly on Tuesday that most new jobs in the ACT will have to come from the expansion of private enterprise. Also, in her media statement on Tuesday in conjunction with her budget, the Chief Minister stated that she "continued to recognise the role of the private sector in providing job growth" and "the 1994-95 budget provides an economic environment for local business to expand and to attract new enterprises to the Territory". That is a fallacy. Let us examine her budget. Let us evaluate what she has given to the private sector. Let us see how generous or ungenerous she really has been.
One of the first things the Chief Minister says in this budget is that there are no new taxes or imposts. Even without any new taxes or imposts, the Territory's charges are, and remain, the highest oncost of any State government in Australia. If you want to study the Australian Financial Review of 8 February this year, it contains a very good analysis. I would commend to the Chief Minister the reading of the whole article and the comparisons. Without doubt, the imposts are the highest in Australia. Payroll tax, workers compensation, occupational health and safety and other imposts, including stamp duty, land rates and taxes, are all among the highest in the country. The Chief Minister went on to talk about how business will benefit from reduced petrol prices. I might remind the Chief Minister - she may not realise it - that most transport businesses have their own bowsers and buy fuel straight from the oil companies, and I am one of those. But she simply put 3c a litre on diesel. I cannot shop around and try to find the cheapest fuel. By the time my trucks have driven all over Canberra they have lost what they would have gained. The Chief Minister has conveniently forgotten that last year she put a 3c per litre impost on diesel. This had the immediate effect of pushing those businesses which rely on transport and on diesel across the border, because the same impost does not exist in Queanbeyan, or in New South Wales generally.
The Chief Minister talks about her industry assistance package. A mere $200,000 has been allocated to attract businesses to relocate to or to expand in the Territory. This package, which was introduced in last year's budget with a similar figure of $200,000, had to be topped up by $50,000 just to keep one business in this Territory, a company called Auspace. The entire funds, as I said, were used by one company. If, as I have already pointed out, one company took in excess of $200,000, it is certainly not hard to imagine how many, or should I say how few, you can keep here or attract here - in other words, one company.
Over the last two years we have heard a great deal of talk about the ACT Supply and Tender Agency. To date the agency, which was established two years ago, is still not operational and is yet to call tenders. The Chief Minister has issued a discussion paper on purchasing policy. The paper confirms what everyone already knows - that the Government has been lackadaisical about the whole purchasing issue. It would be a very positive sign indeed from the Government to the business sector that it means what it says if it were to actually get the program up and running. It would mean real opportunities for the local business sector; it would provide jobs for the local community; it would stimulate the economy; and it would give local businesses the opportunity to prove their worth. They do not want gifts; they do not want handouts; they want the opportunity to prove their worth.
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