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They have been misled into believing that a financial crisis exists that requires drastic action to remedy. The truth, as I have said, is that no such crisis exists. The secretary of the Australian Education Union, Clive Haggar, summed it up in one sentence when he said:

If Kate Carnell had advertised her pharmaceutical products in the way she has advertised the Education Budget, Consumer Affairs would be prosecuting her.

We believe that the slash and burn approach is not only bad for the public sector but also bad for the private sector. While the private sector representatives were outlining to the Planning and Environment Committee what action they believed should be taken on the capital works side of the budget to improve the economy and the return to the Canberra community, what does the Government do? It cuts the capital works budget. They then tried to justify that by referring to the non-existent financial crisis. Again, the Government's priorities are all wrong. At a time when the recovery is continuing throughout Australia, Canberra should be out in the marketplace attracting investment and promoting the national capital as a positive place in which to invest. Instead, the Chief Minister broadcast to the world, in words I will not repeat, that Canberra is the last place to invest in because our economy has collapsed. Even if that were true, which it is not, it is the last thing any responsible government leader should say. The tragedy is that it may well be that Mrs Carnell's words turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is useful, if the community is to understand the deception that is being foisted on them, that I outline some of the promises broken in this budget. Mrs Carnell started breaking the Liberals’ election promises even before the election. I think that is something of a record. In her alternative budget speech last year she promised $1½m to the School of Dance and Drama at the Canberra Institute of the Arts. That promise had been broken even before the election. It was left out completely from the election commitments. Mrs Carnell said, “We will reduce the petrol levy by one cent a year over three years”. Out of her mouth, that was her promise. Mr Humphries killed that one off, after pulling the stunt of writing to the oil companies seeking an assurance from them, which he knew they could not give under the Trade Practices Act. What a stunt! It was another fraud on the community. Free school buses was another promise made to be broken. Labor said at the time that it was unachievable and inequitable. So far, no Government member has dared to come out and admit the simple truth that this is just another promise that has been broken. Instead, it has simply disappeared. In fact, it is a fraud on our schoolchildren and their parents, just as we said it was at the time.

The Liberal health policy said:

A Liberal Government will ... open 50 additional public hospital beds at Woden Valley Hospital by the end of our first year in office -

we are getting there now -

to provide a guaranteed minimum of 800 public beds in the ACT.

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