Page 1104 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 8 April 2008
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As a result of the hard work we have done in the creation of our budget, we will outline in detail in our budget our policy responses to all of the circumstances and situations which we face here in the ACT, whether it be in relation to the economy or whether it be in relation to health, education or community safety. We will outline in detail our policies and our prescription for meeting the future. We look forward to just a single suggestion or policy from the Liberal Party in relation to what it would do about a single thing in the ACT.
Mr Barr: They remember growing up in Tuggeranong, but that is about all.
MR STANHOPE: That is right. We await a single suggestion, a single idea, a single hint that you have a policy on anything or that you stand for anything.
MRS BURKE: Chief Minister, I ask again: what action are you taking to rebuild business confidence in the ACT?
MR STANHOPE: Certainly there is a softening and a moderation in the economy—a softening and a moderation driven entirely as a result of the flawed economic policy pursued by the previous government that led to multiple interest rate rises that have driven up interest rates. It is actually a direct response to the inflation which was generated by mismanagement by the previous government of the economy.
We have not done that here in the ACT. We have done the reverse. We have actually restored the budget fortunes of the ACT. We have created the strongest balance sheet any government has ever achieved in the ACT, which has given us the capacity to respond to challenges which we meet from time to time as we experience the different cycles of the economy and of activity within our community. We have the capacity, and we will respond in full with a raft of policies which, of course, will be explained in detail through the budget process in a few weeks time.
We await a single idea, a single policy, a single hint of a policy from the Liberal Party. You will see in very stark detail precisely what our responses are and you will see it starkly. I look forward to and await with great interest, of course, your response to policies and initiatives which we pursue in our stewardship of the ACT and our management of this economy.
Of course we are concerned about the continued growth and strength of the ACT economy—an enviably strong economy which the Liberal Party continues to seek to talk down but an enviably strong economy with a government which has produced, through its fiscally responsible approach to its duties and to the economy, a budget position that allows us the capacity to respond to all the emerging issues which the territory faces, whether they be in relation to health and our ageing population, whether they be in relation to our need or demand to ensure that we remain at the pinnacle of achievement in relation to education and education outcomes or whether it be in relation to community safety.
We have the capacity to respond to all of this community’s emerging needs and priorities. We, as a government, have ensured that the ACT is ready to meet the future.
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