Page 1408 - Week 04 - Thursday, 26 March 2009
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MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (11.45): I would like to make a few brief comments about this process. In particular, I note the very constructive approach to the report by the public accounts committee secretariat. Contrast that with some of the responses of the government, which basically are not substantive and not constructive. The responses have been: noted, noted, noted. I would have liked to see more substantive response to the committee’s recommendations.
One area in which I would have liked to see a more substantive response is recommendation 5, which states:
The committee recommends that any further stimulus packages should consider one-off service provision as well as capital expenditure.
Basically, service provision involves employing people to provide services. If the aim of the package was to stimulate jobs, service provision would seem the most obvious way to do it. Building things can be good, but the community needs services as well. We need teachers and nurses. I could go through the long, long list of services that we need. I do appreciate that the government has a concern about not committing to expenditure in further years, and I totally appreciate and support that, but it is possible to employ people on short-term contracts. Just because you are employing a person does not mean that you have got to commit to employing them forever. I am disappointed that the government has only noted the response and has not provided a more fulsome analysis of why capital is preferable to service provision in all cases.
I also note that the only submission that PAC received was from ACTCOSS. ACTCOSS was generally supportive of the package, but clearly made the point as well that in tough times economically many Canberrans require government services. That is all I have to say that has not already been said.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (11.47), in reply: I thank members for their contributions and their support to enable this local initiatives package to pass through the Assembly today.
As other members have noted, it is very important that the government and the Assembly show a broader level of commitment to our private sector businesses during some of the downturns that we are seeing in the economy and provide them with an indication that the government is prepared, with the support of the Assembly, to bring forward early work that perhaps may have been done in years to come to indicate to business that that work is there and we are prepared to fund it. Of course, as part of another stage in giving that information and support to the private sector community, this package also pre-announced the $45 million capital upgrades program that will be part of the next budget.
As other members have said, the third appropriation bill provides for investment in infrastructure projects of $12.761 million in 2008-09 and an estimated $12.214 million in 2009-10. This significant investment will provide a small impact to the general government sector net operating balance across the forward estimates
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