Page 1643 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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of the Territory's priorities, as demonstrated also by its Federal colleagues - if you like, blaming it all on the Feds?
Despite the Treasurer's claims, this budget is not something that has grown out of any consultative process nor is it one that is responsive to the community's wishes. It is one that has avoided, as far as possible, politically embarrassing issues and which has then been dropped into the Assembly's lap in the hope that we would all become accomplices to an irresponsible and incompetent government document.
It is this Government - the ACT Government - that is responsible for the efficient and effective running of the Territory. The Government cannot simply abdicate its responsibilities. The Chief Minister, as the head of the Government and as Treasurer, should have tackled the Territory's economic future with conviction, with courage and with vision. It is unacceptable that she should pass responsibility for her budget, firstly onto the community and now onto the Assembly, while simultaneously blaming the Commonwealth Labor Government for it all. This has a familiar Keating-like sound to it, has it not? "Everybody is responsible but me".
The Government has denied all responsibility for its failure and has adopted the role of arbitrator of conflicting views rather than that of policy maker. We do not have the luxury of time in the ACT. We do not have the luxury of assured funding in perpetuity either. What we do have is quite the opposite, and the ACT will suffer as a result of the Government's short-sightedness and indecision.
There are many major items that need to be addressed by this Government that have not been addressed in the context of Tuesday's budget. The first of those is overfunding from the Commonwealth. The Chief Minister stated on Tuesday:
The self-government legislation has established a framework for the ACT to be treated on a State-like basis by the Commonwealth.
But when will this Government start behaving like a State government by taking responsibility for its budgetary process? On the basis of 1986-87 information the Commonwealth Grants Commission found that the ACT was then overfunded compared with the States to the extent of some $84m. The Treasurer has consistently refused to face up to this problem. In the lead-up to the election earlier this year she said, "It is fair to say that the Grants Commission is not regarded as being 100 per cent accurate" Then she said, "The ACT's budget situation is not nearly as gloomy".
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