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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (19 May) . . Page.. 347 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

Mr Speaker, it was leaked to the media prior to the budget that the ACT would receive funding for an ACT diversification fund of some $12m over four years. That, of course, did not eventuate. What we received was a paltry $2m for an ACT liaison unit which will facilitate some exchanges on economic development in the ACT - not a huge task, by the look of it. Creation of this unit and its level of funding border on a gratuitous insult to the people of the ACT. We in the ACT have copped it very hard since the Howard Government came to power in 1996, and for the Federal budget to provide us with $500,000 for each of four years for a gabfest to make sure that the ACT is fully aware of what has happened to it economically at the hands of the Federal Government is a final insult.

Mr Speaker, in the context of what has happened to Canberra and Canberrans over the years, I say that I was surprised and disappointed to see the Chief Minister's post-budget press release congratulating her Federal colleagues on their surplus. This surplus which was received with congratulations by the Chief Minister was achieved, in large part, as a direct result of pain and hardship suffered by the people of Australia, and in particular the people of the ACT. Canberra is not alone in feeling the full force of the Coalition's policies, but the disdain and contempt with which the Federal Coalition holds Canberra meant that we were always going to suffer the most severe results of their policies.

We have seen a reduction in funding, we have seen a general downturn in the ACT, we have seen people leave, we have seen businesses leave or fail, we have seen the dental health scheme go, we have seen child care become unaffordable, and we have seen a disastrous level of public sector job cuts which have ripped the heart out of Canberra. People in this house would know as well as any how much we have suffered at the hands of the Howard-Costello Government. Their work has become a matter of distaste and disappointment. The surplus born of reduced services to families is not an achievement worthy of congratulations. Perhaps the Federal Tories will adopt the slogan "Only for some of us" in the upcoming election. This divisive lot cannot possibly claim to wish to serve anything like all of us, and certainly not Canberrans.

Mr Speaker, I advise, for what it is worth, that I have written to the Prime Minister, the Federal Treasurer and the Minister for Territories requesting a review of the requirement for the ACT to make a $10.2m State fiscal contribution to the Commonwealth as part of its deficit reduction program. Logic dictates that we should receive a dividend out of any surplus if we were required to contribute to past deficits. No doubt, I will receive a prompt and considered response from each of these concerned gentlemen. Special government assistance appears to be a lottery these days. Newcastle, attempted stevedoring redundancies, Cobar, Woodlawn, Canberra - take your pick; it is just a lottery.

I would wish to see the Federal Government show a strategic interest - in fact, any interest at all - in the ACT. There must be some recognition that this is the national capital and its economic viability is important to the whole of the nation, whether or not we are often the whipping boy of the Federal Liberals who chase votes and cheap shots by Canberra bashing. Mr Speaker, I wish to mention particularly the Minister for Territories. I mentioned him earlier, but I would like to have his name read into Hansard. It is Alex Somlyay. He is the invisible man of Federal politics who does not seem to feel at all compelled to take much of an interest in a large slice of his portfolio, namely, us.

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