Page 1259 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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Finally, the motion calls on this government to take its share of responsibility. It does not say that it should take all the responsibility; it does not say that no other factors are playing into the economic downturn. But if it will not take responsibility then why is it here? Why is this government here? We heard the Chief Minister, when we found out that the ACT was in recession, essentially taking no responsibility. He was blaming everyone else. None of the decisions that he or his government have taken have contributed. It is all someone else’s fault.
If that is the case, people are entitled to ask: why are they here? What are they responsible for? What they are responsible for is building the ACT economy. In particular, looking at some of the areas where there is significant blockage, we see it in the planning system. Construction activity in the ACT is a significant economic driver. And what Jon Stanhope has acknowledged in his speech, in giving some credit to Kevin Rudd for his handouts to first homebuyers, is that the activity that has happened has been as a result of federal government actions, not as a result of ACT government actions. In fact, it has been in spite of the ACT government’s actions.
We have this contradiction: the Chief Minister says that it is a good thing when Kevin Rudd gives money to first homebuyers, but giving first homebuyers a tax break is a bad thing; in fact, it is inflationary. It is inflationary when you give a tax break, a permanent tax break, but it is not inflationary, apparently, when you give a short-term cash handout to first homebuyers. He has not addressed that point at any stage, and I suppose it is because he would find it so difficult to argue the logic. We have heard him argue in the past that black is white, and I suppose he will have to do it again on this matter.
We have a government that not only has squandered the good times, but also it has contributed to the challenges that the territory faces. We have a Chief Minister and a Treasurer who want to sheet home the blame to everyone other than them. Of course, we know the key part of their argument is that it is the commonwealth’s fault. There is the global financial crisis and there is the commonwealth; they are the two factors which have led the ACT into recession. Nothing that has happened here and no decisions taken here by the ACT government have contributed.
That is not what Jon Stanhope was saying at the time of the last commonwealth budget. In fact, the Chief Minister was cheering on Kevin Rudd and his government as they fought their phoney war on inflation. Remember the phoney war on inflation? They talked up inflation. We know that homeowners around the nation fixed in their interest rates at what now are very high rates because they saw Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan talking up inflation and they expected that interest rates would continue to go up. So they locked them in at eight and nine per cent, lest they go to 11, 12 or 13 per cent, as they have been under previous Labor administrations.
We saw the war on inflation, and Jon Stanhope was cheering them on. I was at the chamber of commerce’s budget breakfast for the federal budget, and when we raised the issue of job cuts in the commonwealth Jon Stanhope said, “Well, we’re comfortable; this won’t have an impact here in the ACT.” Those were his words. There was not going to be any significant impact, yet now those very actions that he
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