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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 356 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Further, there are major issues which should be the subject of debate between the Assembly and the Executive, if your intention is to become seriously engaged in such debate, which you do not include in your list. They include, for example:

. What are the Government's proposals for getting its expenditures down well below what they are currently, in order to achieve any reduced level considered by non-Executive Members to be desirable?

. What serious steps do you propose to identify the core functions which Government Agencies should be committed to achieving, and to reduce expenditures by discarding non-core functions?

. What is your strategy for achieving a balanced operating budget over a reasonable period of years, assuming no earth-shattering suggestions emerge from your proposed debate?

. What are your proposals for imposing control and discipline over the out-of-control Health budget, for which you have had sole responsibility for three of the past four years?

. What plans do you have for dealing with our urgent budgetary problems, other than attempting to sell off more public assets?

. What are your proposals for engaging non-Executive Members of the Assembly in continuous discussions throughout the entire budgetary year in relation to all the matters of concern?

I repeat, a one-off one-day debate with only a 15-minute time limit on each Member will not even begin to address these problems.

One is compelled to question whether your intentions are serious. If they are, why would you begin the process with your usual media release and 30-second TV grab, followed up by your letters to Members? A more credible approach surely would have been to approach each Member privately, without the publicity hype, with a proposal for productive private discussions, either one-to-one or as a group, rather than exposing it all to public view with all the publicity hype that goes with that.

Your proposed "debate" might be a grand publicity exercise for you, but in my view it can achieve no useful purpose for anyone else, unless you offer firm proposals for a more productive process than what you now offer in your letter and your proposed motion.

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