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ACTEW, ACTION and ACTTAB to ensure that they remain efficient and competitive with similar entities in other States. Mr Speaker, I make this commitment today: Corporatisation is not - I stress not - the first step to privatisation. Equally, it will encourage those enterprises to focus more clearly on meeting the needs of their customers who, after all, are the real shareholders of these enterprises.

Good government is founded on good and strong partnerships - partnerships between the public sector, the business sector and, of course, the community. This Government will face up to the challenges of improving efficiency and effectiveness in a rapidly changing management environment by increasing the flexibility of employment and management frameworks in the public sector; and by taking the opportunity, through the new round of enterprise bargaining arrangements due at the end of 1995, to negotiate agreements that will achieve real productivity improvements in return for pay increases - something the previous Government failed to do. We will also keep pace with changes the information superhighway will bring to the way we live and the way we go about our business. This is essential to the way the ACT works.

This Government will not resile from its responsibility to set directions for the ACT economy. We intend to provide a climate of support and expansion, one which allows sustained economic development. The formation of the Business, Employment and Tourism Bureau was the first step that had to be taken if the ACT was to look to the future of economic reform. In the September budget I will be announcing further initiatives in this area to make government business enterprises even more competitive. Through cooperative marketing with the business sector we will promote Canberra region businesses and investment opportunities in national and international markets.

This Government strongly supports the recently released 10-year tourism strategy - something that was initiated by the previous Government. This strategy provides the framework from which the public and private sectors can base their investment decisions and plan for the future growth of tourism in the Canberra region. It is wonderful to see a 10-year strategy at least in draft form. Sports-related tourism is predicted to increase faster than any other sector over the next three years as a result of the activities leading up to the 2000 Games and, in particular, the staging of the 1997 Masters Games in Canberra - an initiative of Mr Lamont’s.

The 2000 Games provides Canberra with an unprecedented opportunity to develop its sports and related industries. As the national capital and centre of elite sport, Canberra is in an ideal position to market itself both nationally and internationally in conjunction with the 2000 Games to take advantage of the interest in Australian sport in the lead-up to the Games. Our approach to this will be aggressive. You simply cannot sit back and hope for it to happen. Because of our proximity to Sydney, we will clearly be far better placed than any other State capital to obtain significant spin-offs from the Sydney Games, and, to allow sporting organisations to better plan for the future, three-year grant funding will be introduced by 1996.

A climate that encourages business expansion will also promote the employment opportunities Canberra so badly needs. Incidentally, it was interesting to see in recent Treasury documents that there has been a downgrading - in fact, a halving - of the projected employment opportunities for the ACT in future years under past policies.

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