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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1939 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

When Mr Moore made comments that maybe we are fiddling at the perimeters of the operating loss, that somehow a bed tax will make a difference, and that we should take into account such things as reductions in workers compensation premiums, I made the comment that it was $12m this year. There was also a reduction last year. I think the reduction in our premium is from some $34.5m three years ago to just over $21m in the coming year. That is a significant reduction. The accommodation strategy we spoke about is $8m per annum.

Mr Moore: Almost the same as the bed tax.

MRS CARNELL: Exactly the point I was just going to make. Mr Moore indicated that the approach we are taking is somehow fiddling at the perimeters and that the bed tax will somehow make a difference.

Mr Moore: No; I did not. That is not what I said. I actually said that you should do it bit by bit.

MRS CARNELL: I did not interrupt you. I was very nice to you. The reason that we do not believe a bed tax is appropriate for the ACT is the same reason the New South Wales Government did not believe a bed tax was appropriate for regional New South Wales or, for that matter, any part of New South Wales except the Sydney CBD. The CBD in Sydney has very close to 100 per cent occupancy. It is the major tourism hub and, with the Olympics coming up, will continue to be so.

Let us be fair; people have very few choices. Whether we agree or disagree with the New South Wales Government's decision to go down that path, the fact is they did not bring in a bed tax for outer Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Queanbeyan or, for that matter, any other parts of New South Wales. We have a situation at the moment where our tourism industry is struggling; it is doing it reasonably tough out there. We are not seeing the sort of growth that we would like to see, whereas the CBD in Sydney is seeing the sort of growth that you would expect to see run on from the Olympics and other things. I am confident that the bed tax would not have been introduced in the CBD in Sydney if the tourism industry had not been doing extremely well.

Mr Speaker, one of the things that I find really interesting about the approach that those opposite have taken with this budget is that, on one hand, they are saying that we are not doing enough to address the operating loss that we currently have; and, on the other hand, they are saying, "Don't you dare touch staff". In fact, the Estimates Committee report suggests that it is inappropriate to go down the path of redundancies at this stage. What is our biggest single cost? Staff wages, the actual costs of running government. On one hand, they are saying, "Yes, you have to do something more". On the other hand, they are saying, "But do not touch the areas that are costing you the most". That is just ridiculous. I said in my budget speech, and certainly in comments I have made since, that I do not believe that now is the appropriate time to take huge hits out of the current budget. The reason we reduced the redundancy budget significantly in this budget that we are supposed to be debating today - but you would not know it - is that we do not believe this is the right time in Canberra, in its current economic cycle, to hit redundancies in a big way. We believe that to maintain the current slight improvement that we are

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