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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1154 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Due to Mrs Carnell's dishonest accounting, ACTEW will borrow and pass on the cost to consumers in future years. Not only do you want to finger John Howard but you also want to fleece the people of Canberra. With her blinkered approach, Mrs Carnell will set the ACT economy in a recession for an extended period.

There is an alternative. I do not intend today to lay out all of Labor's policies for the next election. We will be doing that over the months leading up to the election. I will not make outrageous, unachievable and naive promises, as Kate Carnell did as Opposition Leader in her reply speech in June 1994. In June 1994 Kate Carnell said she would not throw money at health for no return. She said casemix funding would lead to $26m in savings in health, and instead she has topped up the health budget in each year of her term. A promise made and a promise broken! Kate Carnell said she would have a three-year budget. It fell over in under one year. It was just plain nonsense, but she thought it sounded good. A promise made and a promise broken!

Kate Carnell said she would cut $27m from ACTION and still improve availability, punctuality and cost; yet patronage has fallen by 13 per cent, services have been cut by 20 to 30 per cent in some areas and fares have increased by 50 per cent. I suppose that is why we are now awaiting the findings of an inquiry into ACTION. Another promise made and another promise broken! Kate Carnell's one page of unrealistic costings to support this fantasy was a sham. Kate Carnell says that she set a precedent that all oppositions should follow. It was a foolish, fanciful and fraudulent precedent and a precedent I will not follow. I believe in integrity in opposition and in government. The Labor Party commitments will be realistic.

There is an alternative. What I intend to do today is outline a new direction for the ACT. Unemployment is, without doubt, the fundamental economic and social problem facing Canberra. Unemployment is set to rise to more than 9 per cent next year. The only solution to this jobs crisis is real economic growth. It is the role of government to create conditions for a growing economy. Either Kate Carnell does not understand this or she has thrown her hands in the air and said it is all too hard. According to her, positive thinking will fix the economy. Kate Carnell thinks that all she has to do is close her eyes, click her heels three times and think of Kansas, and everything will be all right. Labor knows it would take more, and we would provide more.

Mr Osborne: Which one is Toto?

MR WHITECROSS: Toto is not here anymore. The diversification of the ACT economy should be a Territory government's long-term but highest priority. We all know that our core economic activity, the Public Service, is contracting and a narrowly based economy is a vulnerable economy. We must diversify our economic core to survive. Other cities and regions have done so, and so can the ACT. What the ACT is desperately lacking is a long-term strategic approach. The economic problems of the Territory cannot be solved in one, two or even three years. I think Mrs Carnell's problem is that she expects instant gratification. Only policies that return regular "picfacs" are pursued by this Government.

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