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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 6 Hansard (1 September) . . Page.. 1684 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

When the Carnell Government came to office, it had a $344m deficit to address and, to the credit of the Chief Minister and Treasurer, she has done so in a very difficult situation. I am not going to speak at length, because it is important that we move on and get rid of this Bill. I would like to quote the Canberra Times of Saturday - - -

Mr Quinlan: Is this a confession?

MR HIRD: Listen, young Ted, listen. As reported in the Canberra Times of Saturday, 20 June, this year, Access Economics director Chris Richardson says that he would hesitate to suggest absolutely no spending cuts but says that now is not the time to take an overall vicious axe to the Government's spending.

Ms Carnell: Which is what we did.

MR HIRD: That is exactly what we did, Treasurer. I notice that those opposite have gone quiet, and so they should. Treasurer and Chief Minister Kate Carnell has made a fair fist of dealing with the ACT's long-term physical difficulty without doing the slash and burn predicted by some and urged by others. They are the ones who cannot add up. One and one to Mr Berry is 11. In the Canberra Times on 24 June, page 2, Crispin Hull said:

Overall, though, ACT public-sector accounting is probably the most transparent and accessible of the eight state and territory governments.

I will repeat that because I do not think those opposite were listening:

Overall, though, ACT public-sector accounting is probably the most transparent and accessible of the eight state and territory governments.

I rest my case. It speaks for itself. The Chief Minister and Treasurer is attempting to reduce a deficit which was left as a weight upon her shoulders by the previous Labor Government. The people of the ACT know this and in the recent election they gave the Labor Party the message.

MR CORBELL (6.04): In addressing this appropriation unit, I want to highlight some points that my colleague and leader, Mr Stanhope, made. At the core of the Labor Party's opposition to this budget is the fact that Canberra is a city of enormous insecurity. Canberra is also a city of a quiet but growing anger. In my journeys throughout the electorate of Molonglo over the past couple of months, it has been clear to me that there has been a distinct change of mood. It is quite interesting that it occurred around the time of this Government's budget. We have known for some time that job security and unemployment are key issues for our city. Those issues remain. Those people in Canberra who have jobs fear that they will not be able to retain them. They fear redundancy, they fear unemployment and they fear the consequences that that will have for their families.

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