Page 2778 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012

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(2) supports:

(a) maintaining a strong economy in the face of significant economic challenges;

(b) maintaining a focus on employment to minimise the economic and social costs of joblessness to individuals, households and society;

(d) investment in high quality services to support measured return to surplus in line with the Government’s original budget plan following the Global Financial Crisis;

(e) investments such as the ACT 2012-2013 Budget’s allocations to health, education and transport infrastructure; and

(f) undertaking structural tax reform to address short-term and long-term challenges facing the ACT and to make our tax system fairer, simpler and more efficient.

I move this motion today because it is important to support our economy and to support jobs. Without a strong economy, jobs are lost, businesses close, families suffer and it becomes more difficult for government to provide the high-quality service that the community deserves. Supporting our economy keeps people employed and allows them opportunities to build homes and to live in them with, obviously, their families. It also allows governments the opportunity to address social disadvantage and provide opportunities for those doing it tough. A strong economy is perhaps the most important cohesive element of our society, along with other cohesive elements such as social wellbeing, of course.

Maintaining a strong economy is not the same thing as maintaining a budget surplus, although maybe those opposite do not understand that. It is well understood that governments have a role in managing the economy over the cycle. This means in tough times governments support jobs and confidence and then pull back when the private sector recovers. It is prudent for governments to protect economic activity, jobs and confidence in challenging times. Governments have a longer term view than the private sector, are responsible for the whole society and so must take different decisions than individual companies.

The government wants to ensure that Canberra remains a fantastic place to live. Our community has Australia’s highest standard of living, and the government wants to protect that. Canberrans deserve that and they deserve a government who understands that. Canberrans are, on average, the healthiest, best paid and best educated people in Australia. The ACT has the lowest unemployment rate, very high average wages, and we need to ensure that we have a plan and a vision to maintain our great community now and into the future. Labor’s vision is to ensure that the ACT remains the happiest, healthiest and lowest unemployed, high-wage, most sustainable community in Australia.

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