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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2229 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

The government has claimed that it has a proud record of shifting Canberra from being a public sector town to a private sector town. Again, this is totally misleading. All we have seen in this town is a federal government, and to a much lesser extent a local government, outsourcing some of their services. What has not changed is that the source of payment, the source of economic activity in relation to those services, is still the public purse. The core ABS figures demonstrate that we are still dependent upon the public purse in about the same ratio as we were in 1989 before self-government.

The Treasurer and the Chief Minister have been known and been seen to run laps of honour when the subject of unemployment figures comes up. Our unemployment figures are better than the national unemployment figures; our unemployment figures have always been better than the national figures. In fact, the margin between our latest unemployment figures and the national average has shrunk or is somewhat less than it was in 1995.

Mr Humphries: Unemployment shrunk in 1995-that is why. It is much lower overall.

MR QUINLAN: It has not a lot then to do with what this government has done. In fact, we have heard the Chief Minister, in attempting to rebut some of the statements that were made by Ms Tucker, conceding, "Yes, we are a middle-class town. Yes, we are better educated. Yes, we have always been." It is a function of those things that gives us our unemployment rate; let me assure you that it is not a function of the clever and caring work of a Liberal government.

The capacity of this government to claim credit, undue credit, knows no bounds. Let me give you a short quote from a real treasurer, one Michael Egan. When bringing down the 2000-01 New South Wales budget, Mr Egan said:

He went on, as a politician would, to claim some of the credit. All states and territories are enjoying, to some degree, the fact that the national economy is buoyant. The New South Wales treasurer is honest enough to say, "On the economic front, we do not seek to take all or even most of the credit." I contend that the conditions that apply in New South Wales, the conditions that led the New South Wales treasurer to make that honest statement, prevail in the ACT as well.

I have to say that the ACT budget is not quite a balanced budget. We have had a significant change in accounting. Going back to that $349 million, we have had a retrospective adjustment for superannuation that was included below the line as an abnormal item of $91 million. This government has taken the latest review, adopted a whole different standard and incorporated it above the line. The figures for the actual operating performance for the coming year are probably flattered by that retrospective adjustment by about $25 million. Had we been back on the original accounting system we probably would have been announcing a deficit of about $24 million to $25 million-do not hold me precisely to the figure.

I have mentioned that expenditures have increased under a Carnell government. What has increased significantly is the taxation level. There have been quite substantial increases in tax. We had the Chief Minister saying yesterday, "Oh yes, but you objected

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