Page 1763 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2006
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schools, the safest streets, the best cultural experiences, the best roads, the purest water, the best amenities.
Mr Speaker, there would be some who would say that if we have gone on in this manner for the past 17 years, we can go on in the same way for the next 17.
We cannot. New pressures are emerging that make it imperative that we act decisively, and act now.
Revenue from land sales has fallen, and while it will fluctuate from year to year, while we might still expect occasional windfalls, over time land will contribute an ever decreasing proportion of revenue to the territory.
At the same time serious pressures are making themselves felt. Just like the rest of the country, we are ageing. In fact, as a community, we are ageing at a rate unequalled by any other city.
The implications of this shift will be felt most profoundly in our health system. Across the country, the demand for greater expenditure on health is inexorable. The ACT is not immune.
The demographic shift is being felt too in our government school system, where almost 18,000 desks sit empty.
These pressures are already manifest, already growing in urgency. Others—like our frightening superannuation liability—loom just ahead.
The temptation is not to look—to leave it for another day, another government.
Mr Speaker, this is the day, and this is the government.
Today, I hand down a budget and announce a suite of structural changes that will put the finances of the territory on a sustainable path.
Today, I announce expenditure measures that will bring greater efficiency to government service delivery, ensuring that the resources we have at our disposal are directed at the areas of greatest priority, and to those in greatest need.
I also announce revenue measures that will enable us to continue to deliver the excellent services that the community expects, but that reflect more accurately the true cost to government of providing those services.
I am pleased to say that, significant as these measures are, important as they are, they do not require the government to relinquish the social and economic principles we have articulated in our vision for this city—the Canberra plan.
To be sure, some of the goals we set ourselves in that plan may not be reached quite as swiftly as we would have liked. Some ambitions have had to be cooled. But the philosophy is intact. Our determination to build a community that allows every one of its members to reach their potential and engage fully is undiminished.
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