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I say again: We intend to put the management of Canberra before party politics and foster a less adversarial and more cooperative approach to the task ahead. Our commitment is most evident in our proposal to reform the style of government, our administrative arrangements and the operation of this Assembly. We are currently moving to establish an apolitical task force to examine and recommend possible changes and improvements to our system of government. This task force will comprise prominent Canberrans and Australians, whose charter will be to consult widely about how our mix of State and local government functions can be better managed.

This commitment to reform will be complemented by the development of a sound economic management strategy. It is simply a fact of life that we cannot continue to provide services at a cost that is higher than the standard assessed by the Commonwealth Grants Commission. For the first time, an ACT government will take a strategic approach to managing the Territory's transition to State-like funding. We will bring down not a 12-month but a three-year budget strategy in September. The reforms that are required are significant and there will need to be a major restructuring, but this cannot realistically be achieved in just one year. A three-year strategy gives greater certainty to managers to be able to plan the production of their goods and services and to introduce wide-ranging efficiencies.

As members will be aware, I have decided to delay the budget from June until September this year. The decision was not taken lightly, but it has been made as a result of the difficult financial position we have inherited. Advice from Treasury is that, if current policies were continued, an accumulated budget deficit of $275m would occur over the next four years. The problem is compounded by the ACT's budget performance in 1994-95. Revenue is down by as much as $15m; additional expenditure requests by agencies amount to $31m. There is only $12m, as Ms Follett knows, in the Treasurer's Advance. General purpose funding to the ACT has been reduced by 12.3 per cent from 1994-95. Put simply, that is a reduction in Commonwealth funding for every ACT resident - that is, for each person - of $133 in just one year.

Mr Speaker, the ad hoc approach to budgeting of the last three years must stop, as must the salami-slice technique, the across-the-board cuts that Ms Follett used. To have continued with a June budget would have been short-sighted and, indeed, it would not have reflected our commitments for responsible financial management and for appropriate consultation. The additional three months will be a very short period but will allow us to develop a strong budget strategy which sets real and achievable targets. In just seven weeks we have already begun to put in place steps that will need to be taken to alter fundamentally the way the ACT manages its business and its finances, and this is just the beginning.

There will be a rigorous examination of administrative expenditure in the lead-up to the September budget. The freeze on numbers of SES and senior officer positions is the first plank in a comprehensive staffing management policy. A key element to reform will be our commitment to manage on a full accrual basis by 1 July 1996, so that agencies and line managers will know the cost of goods and services they are producing - something that, stunningly, they do not know. We will examine a range of options, including contracting out and contestability in the marketplace for some services, the message being that taxpayers' dollars must be spent wisely. We will move to corporatise

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