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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Friday, 14 May 2004) . . Page.. 1967 ..

Hopefully, sooner or later someone—and I suspect it will probably be a Smyth Liberal government—will take the decline in government high-school enrolments seriously. When we see 46.5 per cent of our students in the non-government sector in the high-school years, I think it is another instance of spending more and getting less.

There are many other areas such as disability and children and family services—and, indeed, with indigenous people, as I have already pointed out—where the government has failed, where they have spent more and got less.

But, Mr Speaker, in the arts, I am pleased to note that again, a mere three years after the announcement was originally made, this government will finally commence the glassworks project and finally build the Link project, both of which were initiated by the previous Liberal government. Otherwise, the cupboard is bare in the arts, and I really think that an opportunity has been missed with regard to creating an arts precinct in the ACT.

If we look at sport and recreation—these are a major focus of the appropriation we will discuss later today—again, there is not a great deal in the budget for them. What really pleases me—and it is a shame that the minister is not here—is that, with immense pleasure, I can announce that for the very first time in the life of the Stanhope government there is—gasp—a women’s initiative. There is $100,000 for a women’s grants program. At last the minister remembered to put a bid in for women in this budget. Who is to say that the Labor Party’s a boys club still?

When we got to the end of the Treasurer’s speech, whoops, it was almost like the Treasurer had forgotten to mention the environment and just slipped it in at the last minute. There it is, tucked away at the end of his speech after he’d dealt with the capital works and revenue. What does this indicate about the priority he and his government attach to this important matter? Whatever happened to triple bottom-line accounting?

In the period since the January 2003 bushfire disaster, the security and quality of the ACT’s water supply has been a prominent issue. Actew is now building two new water treatment plants at Stromlo and Googong, essentially to ensure that the appropriate volume of treated water can be supplied to the community in the future.

This budget contains a most interesting decision, however, that affects Actew and the funding of these plants. The government has agreed that Actew does not have to pay a dividend in the 2003-04 year, the current year, because it is claimed that Actew needs these funds to assist with the financing of new water treatment plants at Stromlo and Googong. I find this decision quite extraordinary. The community is being denied funds presumably so that Actew does not have to borrow funds to finance these capital works. If Actew is investing in infrastructure that will be utilised by the community over the next 20, 40, even 50 years, the cost of this infrastructure could reasonably be shared across the community over an equivalent period. The cost of these major capital works should not be imposed solely on consumers in the financial years of 2003-04 and 2004-05.

The decision shows, I believe, that the Treasurer has no grasp of the principles of financing public sector infrastructure. Mr Speaker, I would encourage the government to

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