Page 32 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 May 1989
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Following representations to the conference and discussions with the Prime Minister, the Commonwealth agreed to substantially modify its offer. The effect of the concession was that the funds will now be made available following negotiations with the Commonwealth, for projects to assist the ACT in achieving longer term efficiencies and State-type funding arrangements.
Consistent with the approach adopted for the States, the amount of general purpose capital assistance nominated by the ACT for housing in 1988-89, which is presently paid in the form of long term low interest loans, will be paid as a grant under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement in 1989-90 and future years. The level of this funding in 1988-89 is approximately $7m.
The Premiers Conference also agreed that Commonwealth grants for housing will be reallocated on an equal per capita basis to the States and Territories over three years commencing in 1990-91. The ACT global borrowing limit for 1989-90 will be $39.5m, a reduction of approximately 20 per cent from 1988-89. Prior to the Loan Council meeting, however, it was estimated that the ACT would only borrow $25m of its 1988-89 borrowing limit of $50m. The arrangements negotiated at the Premiers Conference and Loan Council meeting mean that the Commonwealth has met its commitment to maintain funding to the ACT Government in real terms.
The ACT budget received the benefits of this guarantee in 1988-89. Access to the additional funding being held in trust will enable the ACT Government to make the structural changes necessary to bring the ACT's finances into line with State and local government practices.
I wish to comment on those who consider the outcome of the Premiers Conference and Loan Council meeting as a confirmation of the "doom and gloom" which was forecast to result from self-government.
I believe that without self-government, the ACT would not have been given the level of transitional funding it now has. Without the commitment to real terms funding, which the Commonwealth gave in the context of self-government, it is likely that funding cuts would have been significantly more severe. Without self-government, the ACT would have had no separate representation at the Premiers Conference. We would not have been able to argue our case and gain the concessions we did. Now we, the elected representatives of the ACT community, can go about the business of determining the priorities of the total ACT budget.
I present the following papers:
Premiers Conference and Loan Council 1989 -
Commonwealth offer to the States, 18 May 1989;
Ministerial statement 23 May 1989;
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