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Why does our economic system not have some capacity to put a value on the special qualities of Birrigai? All it says is that it is losing money and needs to be more cost-effective. There is nothing wrong with efficiency, but it must be balanced with other goals. The current management have a proposal to cut costs by 30 per cent. Why not give them a go?

In housing, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. For example, how will the Housing Trust fund the dividend that starts at $750,000 this year and goes up to $2.1m in 1997-98? Will the rents go up? Will services be reduced? In the community sector more generally, there appears to be no money to train community organisations to meet the ever-increasing management demands and no assistance for community groups in the transition to the social and community sector award.

We are very unhappy with the business, employment and tourism budget. Both Labor and Liberal have plans to slash ACT labour market programs. Bad luck for the long-term unemployed. We are told that the Commonwealth is in charge of this area, so the ACT need not worry; but DEET programs do not necessarily meet the needs of local residents. ACT programs have proven to be more flexible, on-the-ground programs, while Commonwealth programs are often flavour-of-the-month stuff, more designed to shift statistics than meet local needs. The jobs compact is a good example. What about the argument that more money in tourism and marketing will lead to employment growth? The problem with this argument is that people without skills, the long-term unemployed, the most disadvantaged groups in our society, will still not be able to get jobs. As a community, we have a responsibility to help people who want to work but are not necessarily able, in a world of multiskilling and efficiency drives, to meet the demands of a highly competitive labour market.

There are also real concerns in this budget about cutting jobs. Cutting jobs throughout the public sector, paying redundancy packages to people, and then shifting their costs to the Commonwealth as people go onto the dole will not ultimately save money. While these costs may not appear on the financial statements of the ACT, in the long run they will show up in increased social security spending, increased Medicare payments, increased social welfare problems, and therefore either greater debt or increased taxes.

The basic starting point for the Greens is that if we want a sustainable community we need a sustainable economy. Business must be part of this. We are told that we have to reduce taxes for business to be competitive, but business will keep demanding more and more subsidies and consuming more and more resources. This Assembly should not condone this short-sighted competition between the States and Territories, which can only be bad for us all in the end and give priorities to nationals and multinationals over our own home grown. Why do we not do something different and creative, be open for business that meets social, environmental and cultural objectives, and strive to protect and strengthen our local small businesses? This is a budget that maintains the culture where business, social welfare and environment groups will have conflicting priorities. It does not set a course for the development of a common vision.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

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