Page 2149 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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Moving to heritage, I welcome the funding of upgrades to Albert Hall, Lanyon Homestead, Mugga Mugga and Calthorpes House. Our heritage must be maintained for future Canberrans to enjoy. Albert Hall, in particular, is a much-loved historic building. However, we note that the majority of the funds have been rolled over from last year’s budget and we urge the government to ensure that this important work is completed in a timely manner. It appears that the ACT heritage grants program does not have recurrent funding. This program has funded many worthwhile community projects, such as local history books and restoration and conservation projects, and it would be very disappointing if this important program were to cease. I urge the government to consider entrenching this program, because once our history is lost it is gone forever.
Turning to arts funding, funding for the arts within the CMD has decreased since last year, which is disappointing. The per cent for art program has been largely slashed, but fortunately it seems that other arts funding has been maintained. I welcome the $7.6 million funding for the performing arts theatre in Woden. I also welcome the $40,000 for Valley FM 89.5 community radio. The community radio sector has been a largely ignored part of the community sector. It is always struggling for funding, but it is great fun and it delivers a lot to our community in many ways.
Again looking at arts, one of the important tasks for the government is to use the $14 million dedicated to the centenary of Canberra ACT celebratory program to stimulate Canberra’s arts sector by consulting and engaging local artists and the community.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (6.06): Mr Speaker, it is an important and momentous thing to speak on a budget, and it is as important and momentous to comment on it as it is to bring one down. The Leader of the Opposition has spoken at length today and on a number of occasions about the lost opportunities of this budget. I think that it is necessary that these sentiments be repeated, because Tuesday’s budget was a prime example of the inability and the failure of the Stanhope government to manage the ACT economy. It showed that we have a situation of rising revenue over the next four years and a forecast new boom culminating in the highest ever level of revenue for the ACT of $3.8 billion in 2012-13. Yet, with that in mind, in the same year we will see the ACT in deficit to the tune of $150 million, and $770 million in deficit over the whole period.
The government has said that its financial woes are due to the global financial crisis, and yet it has done nothing to address that. In fact, it wants to employ over 1,000 new staff this year and increase spending by $240 million. But then we think that we will see belt-tightening in 2010-11, when the government and agencies will be asked to produce efficient dividends. How many of those nearly 1,000 staff will lose their jobs in the ensuing period and is this a responsible course of action?
What we have seen is a history of bad budget management. We had experience of the horror budget of 2006, which was predicated on the false premise of the still-secret functional review, a budget that would forecast a deficit of $86 million in 2006-07 but miraculously turned into a surplus of $34 million, a turnaround of $112 million. This is an abysmal record of government in predicting and managing revenues.
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