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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1160 ..

MRS CARNELL: Mr Whitecross said that I did not have an industry policy or that this Government did not have one. I would like to table "Dealing with Change: An Economic Development Strategy for the Australian Capital Region", dated May this year.

MR MOORE (3.30): Mr Speaker, this is not an impressive budget. Why is it not impressive? The Chief Minister's spin doctors have presented it as a good budget; but let us ask a few questions. Does this budget reduce the Territory's annual deficit? Does this budget remain free of borrowing? Does it help economic growth and employment in Canberra?

Mrs Carnell: Yes.

MR MOORE: I am unimpressed, Mr Speaker, because none of these things are really true. They are, at best, half true. Indeed, we heard an interjection from the Chief Minister a short while ago, saying yes to one of my questions. These things are, at best, Mr Speaker, half true.

I must say that I am dissatisfied with this Government's growing habit of distortion. This budget is a budget of distortion. It is about presentation of half-truths and spin doctoring to conceal the true picture. The true picture is that the continuing losses are made up by borrowings concealed through such devices as "dividends" from recently corporatised government organs; "distributions" from the same source to maintain otherwise falling capital investments; "debt-equity restructurings"; and accounting transactions, such as one arm of government selling light-poles to another. There is a fundamental distortion of the difference between what we earn and what we spend. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, this is the critical factor. We have about a $100m discrepancy in cash terms between what we earn and what we spend - around a $200m operating loss in accrual terms.

The Government keeps referring to jobs, jobs, jobs; but jobs growth is not really in this budget. They have done some polling, and the polling tells them that they had better do something about jobs. So, they dress up a budget, which they have already conceived, as a jobs budget. It is merely a presentation spin added because of these polls. The Government has it as its theme to keep talking about it - not to do anything about it, but to talk about it.

The Liberals came to office promising openness; but, in fact, they are artful distorters of the true picture. So, what do the artful distorters do? They continue to sell off the public assets. The asset sales and borrowings are the means by which the Liberals support their budget, the means by which they cover up this $100m discrepancy. They have not solved the problem; they have just covered it up, and they have distorted and distorted in order to pretend that they have solved the problem.

Last year, the distortion was about the sale of public assets. This year, the distortion is about concealed borrowings. The Liberals' device with ACTEW looks like a great deal - money coming in to us from an outside entity - but overall - - -

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