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Trends . . Page.. 481 ..

When I took action to expand the horizon of local businesses, by leading a business delegation to Japan, the Liberal Party carped long and loud. They complained about the cost, about the people involved, and about the idea. In fact, they complained about anything that came into their heads. Some business leaders eventually tired of their constant complaints. The president of the Canberra Chamber of Commerce, a former president of the ACT Liberal Party, Mr John Louttit, spoke out in support of the business delegation. For his trouble, he was sacked by the Liberal member of the Assembly who owned the firm that employed him.

Mr Speaker, what about the other initiatives over those years? The casino was one example - a great job creation and revenue earning scheme for this Territory. I did not hear Mr Kaine mention that. There was the establishment of the Canberra and Region Advanced Technology Manufacturing Association. These companies are at the world's leading edge in technology manufacturing. Some manufacture for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. When they came to the Government and said that they needed a manufacturing estate to meet their specific needs, my Government responded by developing the Symonston advanced technology manufacturing estate. What did those members opposite do? The complained about the cost and they complained about the likely success. They bleated long and loud, as we have come to expect from them. There was never a word of support for the innovation of the Government, which was interested in building jobs for Canberra's future. As the figures clearly show, we were successful in doing so. Now that they are in government, nothing has changed. All we get is the doom and gloom; no solutions, just problems; no ideas, just complaints. As demonstrated by this matter of public importance today, the Liberals always believe that it is someone else's fault.

Mr Speaker, I would like to return to the facts relating to the budget situation during the three years of the ACT's Labor Government. I have already outlined the record of the performance of the Government in relation to the economic statistics. For Mr Kaine's benefit, I will deal separately with the budget and the economy. The management of the ACT budget during that period was an extraordinarily difficult task. The ACT, in the transition to State-type funding, experienced funding reductions from the Commonwealth that were never previously endured by any State or Territory. Nevertheless, the ACT Labor Government was equal to that challenge.

As I said in June 1992 in my three-year budget strategy, we set objectives of a balanced recurrent budget, a taxing regime that did not impact unfairly on any one segment of the community, and low borrowings restricted to purposes that showed a benefit to future budgets. Unlike what Mr Kaine asserted, I have never said that we did not borrow, Mr Speaker; but we certainly did restrict our borrowings to purposes that showed some future benefit. I would like to quote briefly from the magazine Trends in relation to the ACT's budgetary situation. This is the Trends magazine of July 1993. It says:

There is a legitimate case for funding part of capital spending programs through debt and to fund some of the adjustment to lower Commonwealth funding as a transitional measure in order to promote equity between different generations of taxpayers. The trap to avoid is funding current spending through debt.

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