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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1403 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

This is the creation of the Small Business Innovation Fund to provide venture capital for small technology-based companies involved in the commercialisation of research and development. In total, some $130m will be provided from this fund, and Canberra is well placed with a large number of IT companies that may very well be able to take advantage of this fund to help with the commercialisation of their research.

The budget announces a comprehensive program for the sale of 57 Commonwealth properties across Australia, following an independent review by the Commonwealth Property Committee. Properties for sale in the ACT during 1997-98 include the Edmund Barton Building in Barton, the Alexander Building in Woden, the Albemarle Building in Woden, the R.G. Casey Building in Barton, and Discovery House in Woden. In view of the weak property market in Canberra, it is vitally important that the Commonwealth pursue this property sale program in a very responsible manner. To this end, I welcome the establishment of a high-level working party which includes representation from my department. The working party will advise on a long-term strategy for office accommodation in Canberra and ensure significant local input into the sales program.

Mr Speaker, on the downside, the budget contains a number of measures that will adversely affect the ACT community, which we all know is already suffering under Commonwealth restructuring. These include reductions in child-care funding; reductions in funding for the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, built upon the generic pricing policy aimed at ensuring that the Commonwealth does not pay more than necessary for drugs; and the cancellation of the refurbishment of Scarborough House in Woden, which was to cost $13m. Finally, whilst any reduction in funding for public housing is disappointing, the cutbacks announced last night are in line with recent expectations or, as the Minister said, are even better than recent expectations, and are certainly much less than the cuts that were mooted earlier this year.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I suppose you could say that there are few surprises in last night's Commonwealth budget. Nevertheless, the continued reduction of the Australian Public Service will impact on Canberra and is still our major concern. As I said in presenting the ACT budget last week, the challenge for us all is to do everything we can to put Canberra back on the path to sustainable growth, and that path is about making sure that we can stand on our own two feet and head towards developing the private sector in Canberra. It is about making sure that we get businesses to this city and create jobs in the private sector. In other words, not only were the projections we put in our budget proved to be correct last night, but so was the strategy we announced last week. I present the following paper:

1997-98 Federal Budget - Implications for the ACT - ministerial statement, 14 May 1997.

I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

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