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Hansard . . Page.. 1655 ..

I have already said that this budget shows courage in cutting expenditure rather than raising taxes, and I give credit to the Chief Minister that in her first budget she has grabbed the ball, she has run with it, and she has scored a good try. Whether she can kick the goal remains to be seen. It is also my first budget. It is the first time I have been faced with a full set of budget papers and all the boring press releases and speeches that seem to go with them. So, while I am looking at the general thrust, I am still looking at the fine detail of the Government's play, and I will be surprised if they got it all right. Already I can see a few things that could have been done differently and better, and I will be drawing attention to them when the Assembly debates the budget in detail. I might add that while I, and all Canberra, are relieved that this is not a horror budget and not a slash and burn budget, to steal a phrase from Mr Berry, I have my suspicions about next year's. Even if the Chief Minister kicks a beauty this time, as I am sure she thinks she has, even if all the cost cutting actually happens this year, I reckon that she will have to use tougher tactics next year if she is to bring the deficit back.

The more I look at this budget, the more it looks as though, while the Chief Minister has shown some courage, she is really calling on the ACT Government Service executives and managers to be courageous. They have been left with the job of deciding how and where to make the many cuts. She has delivered them one-line numbers and said, “You make it work”. I ask: Where is the political decision-making and toughness in that? Making administrative decisions, whether it is about the options that go to the Government or deciding how or when to administer the Government's policies, is just as political as anything Cabinet does. For that matter, so is simply deferring doing anything about what the Cabinet decides and the Assembly enacts.

Politics is about making choices. It is about giving to some and not to others. It is about taking from some and not from others. There are not many situations where everyone can win, and that brings me to my own patch. I cannot say that I am delighted for Tuggeranong and for Brindabella. A few capital works in this budget are mainly already in train. They were decisions of the last Government, not this one. I cannot see much money for additional services for our families and community. I shudder to think what the cuts to ACTION, the public transport system, will do. Bus services in the valley are already inadequate, particularly for young families at the southern end of the valley, eight kilometres or more away from the major services.

There is another very sore point: Tuggeranong desperately needs a new police station. It is not getting it in this budget, but I am serving notice that I will be pushing long and hard for it next year.

Mr Berry: It is not about kicking beauties; it is about telling beauties.

MR OSBORNE: That is a good one. We will note that in Hansard.

We are getting five of the additional police recruits and six experienced police from squads that have been disbanded. That is good, but still not good enough. Much of the time of the experienced men will be taken up with training and there will not be one extra car on the road. The police at Tuggeranong are working in a cramped, antiquated building that has no charging or lock-up facilities. Every time a car crew arrests and

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