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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (30 March) . . Page.. 1188 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Mr Rugendyke made a point in relation to the V8 car race. Mr Speaker, I do not think that there can be any comparison, except that the Labor Party also expressed its deep reservations and concern about that issue, again against the background of this Government's performance. I wish the project well. I trust that the incentive package will not impact further on the provision of services to Canberrans. We have a difficulty in the provision of services within our hospital system and we have a difficulty in the provision of services throughout the Territory in areas of community services. It is not as if we are pleasing everybody in that respect. I am sure that out there in the community there would be a whole bunch of people who would say that the $8m or $10m would be better spent on providing services to the community.

I have some sympathy for that view because there are services which are not being provided. The most significant one that I hear about out there in the community when it comes to tourism is the appearance of the city. We could spend a few dollars there as well as on the provision of the other services I mentioned. Against the background of all of those things I have said, Mr Speaker, I am happy to support the motion which notes the Government's position in relation to the matter and I am pleased that they have decided on that course, rather than calling for support for the proposal in this Assembly, because I think that it would be much more difficult to support it than to note it.

MS TUCKER (5.38): The issue here for the Greens is not whether the establishment of Impulse Airlines will have an economic benefit for the ACT; it is whether the Government should be giving Impulse $8m of taxpayers' money and forgoing $2m of payroll tax and stamp duty in order to assist the airline to establish here. If Impulse wished to establish its operational base in the ACT without government assistance, that would be a commercial decision of Impulse based on its assessment of the market opportunities that would arise from such a move relative to the costs of establishment. That is how private enterprise is supposed to operate. However, once government starts intervening in such decision through the offering of financial incentives, these types of business decisions get distorted. I disagree with Mr Kaine; they definitely become a political issue because we are giving so much of the taxpayers' money to them. The Assembly has to pull apart this proposal and look at the broader public interest in the Government's proposed expenditure.

There has been an increase in the public concerns expressed about the value of the common practice of governments in Australia, not just the ACT Government, of enticing business to particular locations through offers of assistance. The Canberra Times editorial yesterday is a good example of that. In fact, in 1996 the then Industry Commission undertook an inquiry into state-territory-local government assistance to industry. The comprehensive report from that economically conservative organisation concluded:

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