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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1174 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Let me correct a further mistake - I will be charitable - by Mr Whitecross. The ACT Government did not promise to complete the Gungahlin Town Centre by the end of 1995. We promised, as the record will clearly show, to start work on the centre by the end of 1995, and we kept that promise. Mr Speaker, we have maintained our promise. We will proceed with those things. We will be able to fund those things because we have shown how we will do that, but those opposite do not seem to have the answers to the problems that they have posed.

Let me set at rest a couple of things raised by Mr Osborne and Mr Moore. Mr Moore posed the question: Does this budget reduce the annual deficit? There seemed to be a criticism there that we did not reduce the annual deficit.

Ms McRae: Well, you do not.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, we do not - not significantly. There is a reduction in there. In real terms there is a reduction in the deficit, but it is not dramatic. I will concede that. Mr Osborne was more explicit in his statements. He said that we need to be courageous and we need to deal with expenditure which is too high. I have to say that I accept a level of criticism on that score. There is still a question about the amount of money that the ACT Government is spending overall. That is a matter which perplexes the ACT Government and which, I will say, I believe the ACT Government needs to return to in the future. But I must say I really find it difficult to accept that criticism from Mr Osborne or Mr Moore because they both, fairly consistently, particularly Mr Moore, have opposed measures by this and previous governments to reduce expenditure by the ACT.

If anybody in this place could be said to be the person who always says no when expenditure cuts are proposed, it is Mr Moore. To be quite frank, I think Mr Moore should be the last person to pick up lines out of the Canberra Times editorial about our not dealing with the hard issues of expenditure reduction and ask why this is not happening, because he is probably the biggest single obstacle, in a legislative sense, to there being action on that score. Let Mr Moore, if he really believes that expenditure is too high, come to us and say, "I will support cuts in these areas". Then it might be a different story.

Mr Speaker, I want to finish by referring to a couple of issues raised in the debate which are picked up by the editorial in the Canberra Times of yesterday. First of all, the Opposition has valiantly attempted to pin the blame for the current ACT economic position on the ACT Government.

Ms McRae: Ha, ha! As if it is not your fault. Who else can you blame?

MR HUMPHRIES: Ms McRae laughs. I will tell you who else you can blame. I quote from the Canberra Times editorial of yesterday:

As Chief Minister Kate Carnell said in her Budget speech, the economic downturn in the ACT is directly attributable to massive reductions in spending and employment by the Commonwealth.

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