Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 482 ..

That trap was avoided, Mr Speaker, and our overall debt position was kept very low.

I would also like to refer to a briefing document. This is not one of my documents. This is a briefing dated 21 April 1995 from the ACT Treasury to the current Chief Minister and Treasurer.

Mrs Carnell: You mean the ones that we distribute because we are an open government.

MS FOLLETT: The second page of that document, Mr Speaker, as I struggle to speak over Mrs Carnell, shows very clearly that over the past four years the ACT budget has shown a surplus of $88m. That gives the lie to much that Mr Kaine said. Mr Speaker, our management of the budget was so successful that during the term the Territory's credit rating by Standard and Poor’s was upgraded - I repeat, for those opposite, that it was upgraded - to AAA, the highest available rating. That budget position has not yet changed, despite Mrs Carnell's doom and gloom. I want to quote from Tuesday's Commonwealth Budget Paper No. 3. It says:

The Australian Capital Territory is in a sound financial position with a very small level of public sector debt ...

It goes on:

... since self-government the Australian Capital Territory's budget has remained fairly close to balance. In the medium term, the Australian Capital Territory will need to maintain its record of budgetary discipline in order to accommodate a decline in Commonwealth funding to State-type levels.

Indeed, it will. That is absolutely true. Mr Speaker, the record of the ACT Labor Government is clear, and it has been independently assessed, unless those opposite really believe that it is possible to somehow fool an international rating agency like Standard and Poor’s.

Mr Kaine, reduced for the first time to the back bench, as he told ABC radio this morning, has also attempted to accuse the Federal Labor Government of destroying the ACT economy. Mr Kaine - through you, Mr Speaker - perhaps we should consider the last time there was a Federal Liberal Treasurer - not you, Mr Kaine, but Mr Howard. Mr John Howard again leads the Liberal Party, so we have a bit to go on, and it also is a sign for Mr Kaine not to give up just yet. Reruns do occur. Mr Speaker, when John Howard was last Treasurer, when the Liberals lost office in 1983, there was just one Commonwealth building under construction in Canberra. That was Malcolm Fraser's new home for the Federal politicians, the house on the hill. What the Labor Party, both federally and locally, has sought to do is to establish a constant and regular capital works construction program in this Territory. That is what the Canberra construction industry wanted. In previous years we had many complaints, quite legitimate complaints, about the peaks and troughs in this important industry, and, both locally and federally, governments have sought to even out those peaks and troughs. What we have seen federally is a plan for new buildings and refurbishment of Commonwealth buildings in the ACT that maintains jobs now and well into the future.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .