Page 652 - Week 03 - Thursday, 15 March 2007
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Withdrawing funding for the prison also does not take into account our moral obligation to care for and rehabilitate our own prisoners. We owe that to their families and to ourselves as citizens of a caring community with a social conscience. The prison is about much more than dollars in this sense, and should be recognised as something we have to have as we mature as a self-governing community.
Amazingly, alongside cutting revenue, our Liberal colleagues have committed to funding for a raft of initiatives. These include funding for new initiatives, pledging greater support for existing areas of government services or restoring funding to a host of activities and interest groups. Unsurprisingly, tourism, sport and business support have been singled out for more funding. How the Liberals can commit to further funding for numerous initiatives while cutting revenue is difficult to fathom. I would like to know their secret. To me it indicates a future hole in the territory budget and cuts to services. It also shows a lack of understanding of territory finances and the narrow revenue base in the ACT.
What the Liberals are proposing brings a real risk to both government service provision in the ACT and the economy. Ask the business community how they would perceive the ACT’s credit rating being downgraded and the ACT going into a long-term deficit. Ask the community how they would feel about cuts to services, and hidden charges, under a Liberal government. I think we can predict their responses, and they will not be supportive.
We need a government in the ACT that will tackle the structural reforms necessary to place the budget on a sustainable fiscal footing. The government started this work in the last budget by making sizeable savings and increasing revenue. Making promises to reduce revenue while at the same time increasing spending does not fit with a sustainable budget strategy underpinned by a commitment to a surplus operating position. A cut in revenue would be a cut to services and detrimental to the ACT economy. This government has a record of sound economic and financial management. This government has a record of sound budget decisions with a focus on the future. This government has a financial strategy to take care of the future of the territory—something that the opposition appear to be sadly lacking.
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra—Leader of the Opposition) (4.32): Mr Speaker, this government’s reputation for squandering record GST gains and record stamp duty receipts at a time of economic prosperity, doing so after inheriting a surplus budget following a lot of hard work by the previous Liberal government, is on record. The government is also on record for having shown some amazing knee-jerk reactions in the last budget as it panicked following its functional review. I am not going to stand here today and give credence to the myth that Mr Stanhope and Ms MacDonald, following her leader, seemed to be trying to perpetuate, that we are somehow going to abolish $100 million in taxes and charges.
Mr Stanhope: So it is all bulldust, is it?
MR STEFANIAK: In fact, over the next 18 months you will find out exactly what we are proposing. We have proposed a number of things so far and I will state a few of those now, but do not try to put words into our mouths. Might I point out in terms
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