Page 1135 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 29 May 2007
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In tourism we had, in a small budget, huge cuts—3.5 million. We saw that reflected in much lower visitor numbers in the latest survey. We have seen unprecedented cuts in the sports budget. It is a very small budget, but $400,000 was taken out of it. That really hit a lot of grassroots sportsmen incredibly badly. Then we had 23 schools and preschools closed. Again, I cannot recall the federal government doing anything in relation to closing schools.
Since the federal Liberal government came to power in 1996, Australia has managed to weather a number of rather extraordinary crises in the region. Through all of these, including the East Asian meltdown, Australia has sailed through unscathed. That is not a matter of good luck; it is good judgment. It began with the federal government working to pay back $96 billion in debt incurred by the Hawke-Keating government, which was costing Australians $10 billion in interest annually. That $10 billion can buy quite a few schools and quite a few social services.
The Howard government created the conditions in which economic enterprise could flourish in Australia. Business flourished. Indeed, Mr Rudd’s wife’s million-dollar company was just one company that flourished spectacularly in a climate created by tax cuts and industrial relation reforms—without which we would not be enjoying such boom times.
Through successive international downturns, Australia has performed brilliantly. That point seems to have been forgotten by many in the population who, if you go by the opinion polls, think we can afford to have a change just for change’s sake. If they think this, part of the reason may well be that they have ceased to be aware of Labor’s very poor track record on economic management, both nationally and at a state and territory level.
Our system of federation makes it possible for states and territories to fail rather ignominiously on things like hospitals, government schools and public transport, but never take responsibility for it. Indeed, Labor governments around the country have been able to squander money without delivering the necessary improvements to goods and services to the community. That is what has happened here.
Our last budget slashed community services and hiked taxes and charges across the board. We are seeing that come home to roost now. I have seen some figures which scare me in relation to the latest hikes in the cost of water for the ACT. If they are correct, that could add up to $848.29 per year even for a two-person household—rising to over $3,000 for water bills for a six-person household. Our economy is booming, but it has very little, if anything, to do with the current government and occurs despite its efforts to squeeze both business and individuals.
The federal budget this year heaped considerable largesse on the ACT. It has delivered to the ACT more affordable childcare, new capital works, increased GST revenue and more public service jobs. Another 5,244 Australian public service jobs will be created, a large number of those in Canberra. We are looking at about 2,000. If you add the families who come in, you are talking about 5,000 extra people. That might scare people like Mr Hargreaves—he says, “Oh my God, where do we put them all?”, but that is basically this government’s fault—but it is good news for our local
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