Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2255 ..

Mr Osborne: No. Let him speak. Get it over and done with. Come on.

Mrs Carnell: Let it be over and done with.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Osborne, for making a decision. Proceed, Mr Whitecross.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (7.01): Mr Speaker, it is good to see that, as usual, Government members make their decisions based on what the Independents want. He is an influential man, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Let us get on with it.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, I want to raise a couple of matters. Mr Berry addressed some of the issues to do with the funding of the budget, in answer to some of the concerns that the Chief Minister seemed to have. Ms Tucker also made what I think is a very important point, which is that it is the role of the parliament to hold the government accountable, to criticise and to raise concerns. It is not the role of the parliament to provide all the alternatives and all the fine detail for the government, Mr Speaker. For evidence of the foolishness of that approach, you only have to go back to 1994 when Mrs Carnell tried to do it. Mrs Carnell came out with her famous one-page alternative budget. What were the two largest savings items that she was going to use to fund her budget proposals? The largest item, Mr Speaker, was Health. She was going to save $30m from Health. Well, has she not made big progress on that? She spent a million dollars on the consultancy to tell her how to do it - - -

Mr Berry: Eight to one she was going to get.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes, for every dollar she spent she was going to save eight. That is right. She spent a million dollars so she should have saved at least eight million.

Mr Berry: A bit more swaggering went with it, too.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes, and she had promised to save $30m before the election in her alternative budget. What has she actually done? Every year more money goes in. This is the Chief Minister who had to come crawling back to the Assembly the first year and say, "Please, can I have another $14.2m because I could not manage my health budget and I need some more money?". That was the first year. The next year she said, "I am keeping that $14.2m and can I have a bit more as well?". Then the third year she has come back and said, "Can I have some more again, please?". It is $80m over three years. This is the Government that was going to save $30m, Mr Speaker. That was the first revenue item out of her alternative budget back in 1994.

What was the other one? ACTION. I will give the Government half marks for that because they have cut the $27m they had promised out of ACTION. What have they got to show for it? They have a report from their own consultant who tells them that they have stuffed it up; that they have stuffed up the public transport system in Canberra and that they should now undo all the changes that they have been making over the past three years. After cutting $27m out of ACTION and reducing the frequency of services,

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .