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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 5021 ..

Mr Wood (continuing):

Occupational Health and Safety Act-Occupational Health and Safety Council Appointment 2003 (No 4)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-303 (LR, 24 November 2003).

Public Place Names Act-Public Place Names 2003, No 26 (Street Nomenclature-Lyons)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-305 (LR, 24 November 2003).

Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act-Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Approval of Taxi Network Performance Standards 2003 (No 1)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-298 (LR, 20 November 2003).

Road Transport (General) Act-Road Transport (General)-Declaration that the road transport legislation does not apply to certain roads and road related areas 2003 (No 9)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-301 (LR, 20 November 2003).

Surveyors Act-Surveyors (Fees) Determination 2003 (No 2)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-307 (LR, 24 November 2003).

Unit Titles Act-Unit titles (Fees) Determination 2003 (No 2)-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-306 (LR, 24 November 2003).

Workers Compensation Act-Workers Compensation (Fees) Determination 2003-Disallowable Instrument DI2003-302 (LR, 24 November 2003).

Economic white paper

Discussion of matter of public importance

MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Mr Smyth proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly, namely:

The lack of goals and targets in the government's Economic White Paper.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (3.35): This is an important matter for the public because the public of the ACT, in particular the business community, were promised a white paper. For the edification of members I will explain what a white paper is. A white paper follows a green paper and a green paper normally follows some discussion papers but is often the discussion element. A white paper is traditionally the way of releasing a major initiative out of the budget cycle that tells you where the government is taking you. It would traditionally tell you how you are going to get there, where you are going and, more importantly, how you will fund it. Mr Quinlan has broken all the traditions. He has produced an almost $1 million mirage-it simply disappears under close scrutiny.

I want to give you, as a comparison, two white papers which have been released recently. The first is a tourism white paper released by federal Minister Hockey and comes with $235 million worth of funding to achieve its targets. It tells you how the federal government will achieve structural reform, international and domestic marketing, research and statistics, event and niche markets, structural initiatives and improvements in infrastructure and implementation. It is a white paper in the true sense of the word. Mr Quinlan has released version 3 of a discussion paper that probably does not warrant the appellation of a green paper because there is nothing in it.

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