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Canberra Times . . Page.. 1644 ..

But does the Government accept its responsibility for this decision? No. It attempts to shift the responsibility to the public servants. As the Canberra Times put it:

... her Budget throws the onus on Agency heads, to cut total spending on the Territory's administration by nine per cent in real terms over the next three years.

In other words, agency heads are given their dollar bottom line and told to achieve it. Just to make sure that they do, they are put on performance contracts. It takes no great intelligence to realise that services and social justice will almost always take second place to profitability in such an environment. Indeed, the agency heads have little choice, and no direction from the Government. As the Canberra Times rightly pointed out:

Ultimately, the allocation of resources, preferring some people and things over others is essentially a political matter. It has to be done by politicians, not bureaucrats.

As is so often the case, this Government will try to blame anyone and everyone but itself for its decisions. How many times have we heard, “It is the previous Government's fault”, or “The Australian Stock Exchange did not put an offer to us”, or “We did not know the Kennett Government would steal Thomson Radar.”? It is always someone else's fault. One thing I can tell this Assembly with absolute conviction is that at some time in the future we will hear Mrs Carnell telling us, “It was the agency head’s fault, not mine. If the head has to cut staff to manage the department's budget, that is not my fault”. I can see it coming.

After the public servants have lost their jobs, who is going to employ them? In this budget, Mrs Carnell tells us that job growth in the ACT is expected to be only 1.5 per cent per year for the next three years. That is about 2,400 jobs a year. In her campaign launch speech, Mrs Carnell said:

Every year in Canberra, 4,000 new jobs are created. And every year, there are 5,000 people seeking them. That means 1,000 people each year are either leaving Canberra or joining the growing unemployment queue.

The 4,000 new jobs, of course, were created under a Labor government. What this Liberal Government is now proposing is that only half these people seeking a job will actually get one, and 2,500 people and their families will leave Canberra or join the unemployment queue. Decisions like the reduction of $66m in the capital budget over the next three years will cause the loss of 1,000 jobs, as the Master Builders Association attempted to tell this Government; but the Government does not listen to anyone whose views it does not wish to hear. It claims to be about consultation. What a joke! Budget Paper No. 3 says about the budget process:

The process included invitations for all Members of the Assembly to participate in the Budget formulation discussions.

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