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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 702 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Consequently, all States and Territories await confirmation from the Federal Government as to the fine details regarding SPP reductions. It is expected that a final decision will be made by the Prime Minister in the context of the 1997-98 budget. The ACT is of the opinion that the initial funding cuts of 1.4 per cent are the limit of our capacity to absorb any decrease. Additional reductions of up to 1.3 per cent, on top of the 1.4 per cent, are overly severe, given that they will impact on the capacity of the ACT to deliver essential services to the community. Finally, Mr Speaker, the Commonwealth agreed to provide competition payments to the ACT totalling $3.6m in 1997-98, subject to the recommendations of the National Competition Council.

Premiers Conferences have never been pleasant experiences for any Chief Minister from the ACT. In every year since self-government, the ACT has suffered significant funding cuts from the Commonwealth. However, having gone into this conference facing the possibility of funding cuts and payments to the Commonwealth totalling more than $30m and coming away with a cut of less than $10m, I have to say that it was probably a reasonable result for the people of the ACT. Of course, I, along with my colleagues, will continue to put pressure on the Commonwealth, as I am sure everybody in this place will do, to come clean on foreshadowed reductions to SPPs and to understand that reductions in specific purpose payments inevitably mean reductions in services. I present the following paper:

Premiers Conference and Australian Loan Council held on 21 March 1997 - ministerial statement, 8 April 1997.

I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Osborne proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:

That this Assembly supports the Chief Minister in standing firm in naming of the Canberra/Nara Peace Park in the face of pressure from the Federal Government and the RSL to change the name.

MR OSBORNE (3.44): I have proposed this matter of public importance because I believe it raises several issues which deserve the attention of this Assembly. The first is a matter of sovereignty; the second, a matter of belief about the meaning of peace and forgiveness; and the third, my concern that this issue has been cynically manipulated by an individual to exact revenge for a personal slight. I will deal with these issues in reverse.

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