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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 1062 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

That is the simple truth of it. The only way Canberra will achieve the economic performance in the outyears hinted at in this budget is if the Howard Government, with its miserable anti-Canberra agenda, is removed without delay. Chief Minister, if you believe your own blarney, you must be voting Labor in the coming election, like everyone else in Canberra.

But the rubbery figures for the outyears are not the worst of the tricks in this budget. We are supposed to breathe with a sigh of relief, "At least the rates did not go up". Mr Speaker, there is probably a very good reason for that. It is called "the GST". Like all good Liberals, the Chief Minister supports the GST; so, she had to factor it into her planning. Had she increased the rates this year, she knew that, when Howard's GST hit next year, she would have had a mutiny on her hands. So, she will wait and let the Federal Liberals take the heat on that, and she will flog off ACTEW to fill the gaps. That is the plan. That is the grand vision. Canberrans who think that this budget has a sting in the tail need to reflect on this. This was a dry run for the GST, with the Government nudging up basic fees such as car registration to fund policy. Make no mistake: The other reason the Chief Minister has run dead in this budget is that she wanted to leave room for the GST, of which she is an enthusiastic supporter. This exposes the core deceit, not merely of this budget, but of the entire political approach of the Chief Minister.

The Liberals have been, and will continue to be, a disaster for Canberra. But Mrs Carnell, the handmaiden of Howardism, breezes along as though none of this has anything to do with her. But it has everything to do with her, as this budget shows. This budget is a small, but symbolic, piece of the broad re-election strategy of the Howard Government. The handmaiden of Howardism has pursued a softly, softly budget and offered false hope for the future, to lull the public sector nationwide into thinking the bitter pill has been swallowed and everything is rosy from now on.

Chief Minister, there is a simple test to see whether you are fair dinkum about this, and it is not in your glossy budget documents. If you are serious, I challenge you to break ranks with John Howard - not on some social issue, but on the bread-and-butter issues that determine the living standards of every family that lives in Canberra. Demand that John Howard drop the GST immediately, and oppose it in your capacity as Chief Minister. Stand up. Show some leadership. You are a senior member of your party. Demand that John Howard drop the GST. Oppose it as Chief Minister of the ACT.

Mr Speaker, in broad terms, this budget is inspired by the same narrow superstitions that motivated its parent, the Costello budget. It incorporates the same mean-spirited assumptions that are the current intellectual currency of Australia's conservative parties; namely, that, if we magically and radically reduce the role of government, then all will somehow be well. The corollary to that core belief is that government spending is inherently wasteful and that those who perform public work are not engaged in real labour. It is a destructive view that is reaching the end of its shelf life, as the people of Queensland reminded us two weeks ago. It is a view that thinks we are a corporation, not a living, breathing community. It is a mind-set that knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing; that cons people with phoney and simplistic analogies about the corner shop budget.

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