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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 9 Hansard (17 November) . . Page.. 2581 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

I note that the Chief Ministers and State Premiers have guarded themselves against the possibility that there will be major amendments that would leave them in a disadvantaged position. One of the requirements that were set down by them in their negotiations was that if elements of the tax reform package as announced in August were significantly amended there would need to be renegotiation of any agreement with the States and Territories. It obviously had to be part of the deal. I note that it has been anticipated that there might be some difficulty at the end of the day and that that might entail some renegotiation.

Mr Speaker, I do not want to go on at length, but it has taken us seven years from the time the first move was made to resolve this problem. On the face of it, as far as the States and Territories and the Commonwealth are concerned, we have now reached the point where that annually recurring problem of having to go and beg for money from the Commonwealth will be no longer necessary once the new regime is put into place. It will give the States and Territories far more independence and flexibility as to what they can do with the money than they have ever had in the past. I restate that this is a landmark decision, it is a landmark agreement, and I think that the Territory, to be a little parochial about it, can only gain from the fact that this agreement has been reached. I think it is a great achievement and I think we should acknowledge that.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Motion (by Mr Humphries) agreed to:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

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