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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4083 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this may come as a surprise to you, but this Government has introduced a social experiment in accrual accounting. It is here, Mr Speaker, and is something that you may well feel so worried about that you will comment on it yourself. You may even determine that you cannot support this particular social experiment.

But it does not stop there, Mr Speaker. There is more experimenting going on in this budget, turning our community into a social laboratory. Some of us see sale and lease-back as another form of borrowing. Mr Speaker, your mind might be eased in knowing that it is not such a social experiment after all; that, in fact, it is just another form of borrowing. It is another form of having money up front now and being able to pay it back over time. Under those circumstances, Mr Speaker, it just may ease your mind. On that particular social experiment, we still have not seen from the Government an appropriate assessment of a system of sale and lease-back that is sustainable. If we are going to go through that type of social experimentation, we might look at that.

But it does not stop there, Mr Speaker. There are other things that might concern you about social experiments and turning this Assembly and this town into a social laboratory. The next thing that I think you ought to be worried about is the purchaser-provider model. Mr Speaker, there are lots of concerns coming through in this budget. I just target those three for you, because I know how concerned you are about this particular issue of the social laboratory.

I am quite comfortable with the notion that we can experiment with new ideas and be quite innovative. I am not worried about accrual accounting. In fact, I am quite comfortable about it. I think that our community is going to be much better off because we have a system like this. I recognise your concern, which is why you are conscious of this. After looking at the sale and lease-back system and after asking quite detailed questions in the Estimates Committee, where I had some doubt about it, I add that I am quite supportive of that system. I can see the sense in it. Although this is in a sense using a social laboratory, you would not be aware that it has worried me for some time. If we have good ideas, then we should proceed with them, provided we have majority support in the Assembly. If we do not, then sometimes it is still best to bring these ideas out and let people discuss them. I have no problem with this being what some people describe as a social laboratory. The same could apply to the purchaser-provider model.

Moving on, I notice that Ms Tucker raised the issue of the strategic plan, which is a part of this line of the budget. I use this opportunity to say to the Chief Minister, "Perhaps you might like to tell us where it is at". After all, it was due to be released a couple of months ago - in September, as I recall. We are now in November, nearly December. Are you yourself bringing about significant modifications, does the Cabinet not like what is in it, have you recognised that the lack of input from the rest of the Assembly may well cause significant problems, or are you just trying to hold it so you can release it after the Assembly rises in December? I would be very interested to know what is happening to the work being done on that.

There are many other areas of this budget that I could look into in greater detail; but I think that most of the comments that I wish to make on this area, like most of the comments on the rest of the legislation, were made when I spoke at the in-principle stage of this Bill.

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