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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2353 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Deputy Speaker, it is most unlikely that Labor's hoped-for surplus in the third and fourth years will eventuate. Land development profits are by no means guaranteed, especially with the slower economic growth in prospect. The government would be wise not to accept as given the growth forecast it has published in the budget.

Access Economics, for example, is forecasting gross state product growth of 2.3 per cent in 2002-03, which is 25 per cent less than Labor's forecast. I doubt if Labor had taken account of the falling away in investor confidence in the major economies due to a general cyclical downturn, exacerbated by unwillingness to invest, on the basis of unreliable company reports.

GSP growth of 2.3 per cent is looking more and more likely, and could see serious unemployment in Canberra. So much for the Treasurer's credentials. By the way, the Treasurer erroneously proclaimed himself the other day as the only qualified accountant to have been Treasurer of the ACT. Remember Mr Trevor Kaine, who used to sit over there?

Mr Quinlan: Who made that claim?

MR HUMPHRIES: You did.

Mr Quinlan: No, I did not!

MR HUMPHRIES: The Treasurer, who thinks he is the only qualified accountant, has rather compounded the territory's problems with wage justice issues, by announcing to all and sundry that he has tipped lots of money into the trough for public sector pay rises, so: folks, come and get it.

He was too coy to say how much has been provided in the budget for that purpose but, on ABC Radio yesterday, he said that whilst there was not enough for a 15 per cent wage increase, there were adequate funds available for reasonable pay increases.

This sounds to me, Mr Deputy Speaker, like an invitation to union leaders to stake high claims, so it is no wonder the public sector unions regard Labor as a soft touch. Are we now going to see the MEAA dust off its demand, on behalf of Assembly staff, of salaries of $200,000 per year and 10 weeks annual leave? I wonder.

I said earlier that this is a lazy budget. I invite members to look at the kinds of outputs the taxpayer gets for the extra dollars pumped into key areas of government services. In many cases, what the budget documents reveal is that there is little or no improvement in many of the key indicators of program effectiveness, despite the extra investment.

It is fine to look after areas of emerging need, but it is also important to look after those things which are mainstays for the bulk of the Canberra community. For instance, apparently dental services decline in this budget, and ACTION passenger loadings hardly move, despite the much-vaunted single zone fare structure.

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