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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1062 ..

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, at some levels Mr Wood is right in the comments he makes, but the figures he is using combine budget-funded capital works with ACT Housing and ACTEW figures as well. I think that is the approach he is taking. The reality is that the $94m that is available in this budget for government capital works is exactly in line with the forward estimates. It is exactly what we planned to spend, and we will do so.

One of the very good news stories out of capital works in this budget is that, as a result of the very sensible recommendations Mr Moore and his committee brought down, the expenditure on capital works in 1996-97 is expected to be within one per cent of budget allocation. That means that we will actually spend, I suspect, for one of the first times since self-government, the amount of money that was actually set aside in the budget on capital works, because we have gone down the path of preplanning, making sure that the projects are in the budget. In 1996-97 the budget figure was $94.558m.

Mr Wood: This has not much to do with my question.

MRS CARNELL: You asked me to compare last year with this year. I cannot compare 1994-95 - I am sorry about that; I was not the Treasurer - but I can compare last year with this year. Last year the budget figure was $94.558m. The estimated outcome of $98.278m is published in the 1997-98 Budget Paper No. 3, but that includes $3.63m in project delivery costs. These costs were identified separately in the 1996-97 budget. The $94.558m figure for capital works last year, I think, compares very appropriately with the $94m we have made available in this year's budget. Where there is some reduction in capital works is in the ACTEW area, because ACTEW has finished a couple of major projects. They simply do not have any major thing that they need to spend their money on at this time. That is always going to happen with utilities. They will have times when they have projects under way and they will have times when they do not.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Wood?

MR WOOD: Yes, Mr Speaker. That was a long story that ignored the basic question, and the fact that, in this one area alone, capital works, the cuts have resulted in job losses. The Chief Minister does not want to comment on that.

MR SPEAKER: I would take that as a statement.

MR WOOD: There is no point in asking a question because you will not get an answer. You might as well make a statement.

MR SPEAKER: I will spare the Chief Minister's voice.

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