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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 6 Hansard (1 September) . . Page.. 1596 ..

MS CARNELL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. To sum up, it is disappointing that the committee has chosen to support an easy but financially irresponsible path for the Territory. Where some of the committee members have attempted to provide suggestions, they reflect a real lack of understanding of the issues involved. For example, Mr Berry and Mr Corbell have failed to understand that the new fare structure for our buses is revenue neutral and will not affect the operating loss. Now, I do not know how often Mr Smyth has to say that, but those opposite obviously did not listen or did not understand. Those travelling longer distances will be paying more, but those travelling shorter distances will be paying less. This is only fair and equitable, but the Government does not generate any additional revenue from the new structure. I wonder whether they understand it this time, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry and Mr Corbell have suggested that revenue measures were not required if the Government did not commit itself to expenditure on Bruce Stadium or the Feel the Power campaign.

They fail to understand that one is capital expenditure, which does not impact on the operating result, and the other is very minor. It includes things such as the export awards, the Telstra businesswomen of the year awards - things, I would have thought, that those opposite would have considered important. Most importantly, Mr Speaker, it simply does not do what those opposite or what Mr Berry and Mr Corbell said it would do.

Mr Berry and Mr Corbell claim that this Government has shown little public resistance to the unjustifiable $10m Federal budget black hole payment. They continue to say that we just paid it back to the Commonwealth. We agree, Mr Speaker, that the payment is unjustifiable - as does the New South Wales Government and every other government in this country. We have written to the Federal Treasurer and to the Prime Minister. I have personally written and argued with the Prime Minister on this issue. In fact, I have done a lot more to resist this payment than those of the Opposition, particularly Mr Berry and Mr Corbell, have done. Mr Speaker, in the end, if the Commonwealth persists, as they have, we simply cannot withhold the payment. Those of the Opposition who understand Commonwealth-State relations - if there are any - would know that the Commonwealth would reduce our grants by the same amount. In fact, that is exactly what they have done. So again, Mr Speaker, their information was fundamentally wrong. Those opposite knew it was wrong because they have been told on many occasions. It was not even a misunderstanding, Mr Speaker; it was a misrepresentation.

Mr Speaker, Messrs Berry and Corbell have also included the $2m for the Business Development Fund in our supposedly "wanton" spending. They fail to understand that this funding was provided in previous budgets and that this is now off-budget. Therefore, it is not in this budget at all. Messrs Berry and Corbell talk about flexibility in the ACT budget. I am sure they know that some 60 per cent of the budget is spent on health, education and community services alone. Their solution to the need to improve performance seems to be to spend more; whereas our approach is to seek continuously improved efficiency and better services to the community, to take the advice of organisations such as ACTCOSS and to make sure that our revenue efforts are at similar levels as those of New South Wales. In other words, we have pushed revenue and expenditure at the same time and that is a balanced approach.

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