Page 2097 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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how many businesses, if any, the Economic Development Division has actually attracted to the ACT. If the Government was serious about overcoming unemployment, particularly youth unemployment, it would approach the Federal Government about acquiring the assets of the Canberra Airport, or encourage private enterprise to do it, and create an international facility there. That would bring tourists to this town. Not only would it provide employment for the construction industry, but an international facility would automatically create employment, and tourism means jobs for youth.
Chief Minister, about a fortnight ago, I think, you called me a lame duck, but I can assure you that I have not a lame brain. Maybe that privilege belongs to somebody else. What we want, Chief Minister, is not words but action - action combined with investing in the future. Any business person will tell you that it is no good looking at today because today we are all well and alive. What we have to look at is tomorrow, because tomorrow is where our future lies. Remember the old saying, "Charity begins at home". Let us begin at home. Let us keep our business here in the ACT. Let us get ACT business growing and employing more of our young people. Let us give them the opportunity - that is all I ask for, an opportunity - to build on the future, a future with a promise of employment. Let us give our youth hope - the hope to enjoy work and a better lifestyle. We can all talk as much as we like, but that will not fix the problem. Action is what we want, not inaction. The "steady as you go" approach of the Chief Minister's budget is inaction. It is simply a case of not rocking the boat. It will not improve the business climate in this city one iota. Let there be no doubt; this budget contains nothing to improve the business climate in the ACT.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.51): Madam Speaker, I rise to address the budget brought in by the Chief Minister and Treasurer, and I do so with some pride. These substantial documents which I hold identify such things as the transitional arrangements that this Government has put into place in the period that we have been in office since self-government. They also give quite clear indications as to where we project that we will be. I stand here, Madam Speaker, with a capital works program for 1994-95 based on sound judgment in terms of the necessary public infrastructure and the social justice principle that this Government has been pursuing.
I have here a budget overview document which takes a holistic approach to what is contained in our budget. I stand here with estimates for each program that this budget covers, detailing, chapter and verse, what it has paid for, where it has come from, and how it was expended. I stand here, Madam Speaker, with information and estimates for 1993-94 to tell you what has happened. I stand here, Madam Speaker, with a document that takes us through all of the issues required to be addressed in any sensible budget, in any business plan. Any business would have a similar approach. I have here, Madam Speaker, the environment budget statement which outlines how this Government will expend funds, will undertake programs and will assist the community in relation to the preservation of this city in which we live. I have here, Madam Speaker, a social justice statement outlining the social justice programs that this Government has embarked upon.
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