Page 419 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 June 1989
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knowledge that it is going to be harder and harder, that the flow of funds from the Federal Government is going to be less.
I want to state as loudly as I can, as I do everywhere I go, that this procedure is going to continue. It is better that it continues under self-government. It is much better that the Territory has the ability to decide how the changes are going to be made. It is much more desirable to do it that way than to have federal politicians on that hill over the lake making the decisions for us.
We have already had clear evidence of the importance of that political input. At the last Premiers Conference, the Chief Minister was able to negotiate a better deal, simply because the ACT had a political person there, and a very good one, I might say. Had that not been the case, we would this year be some $22m worse off. That is an immediate bonus of self-government. If Ms Follett had not been able to sit down at the table with the Prime Minister of Australia and argue, there was no other person who could have done it. We would have lost that amount of money. So it is very important that the community in Canberra knows this. It is important, I believe, for the Assembly and its members to understand it. The Government certainly does. The Government, I know, is looking carefully at the budget that lies ahead. I trust that all members in this Assembly also realise that.
This debate on the Supply Bill is historically an occasion in parliament for members to get up and come out with a shopping list of wishes, run them out in front of the community, run them out in front of their electorates or wherever they may be in their own areas, and do a little bit of a job on showing people how keen they are to look after local interests. We cannot do that. We cannot simply use this occasion to trot out every little item we want something spent on, unless while we do so we can make suggestions to the Treasurer on compensating savings. That is already the theme I give to people in the community and the groups I meet in the community who argue a case for some very sound need. I say to them, "That's fine. Where would you recommend to the Government that it cuts expenditure?". The danger in this debate on supply, as we have seen already, is that we simply tick off a great long shopping list. That will not do.
The Government does have a task, as we now focus on the budget. The Supply Bill, historically and of necessity preceding the budget, gives us the chance to look ahead at that difficult option. In the ACT it has been compounded, as in all States of course, by the Federal Government's tight monetary policy.
Further in the ACT we have the problem of certain local conditions arising, a slowdown in growth with major building projects finishing, with a greater number of people coming onto employment markets, with difficulties in
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