Page 3044 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 11 September 1990
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APPROPRIATION BILL 1990-91
MR KAINE (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.00): I present the Appropriation Bill 1990-91. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Mr Speaker, today I present to the people of the ACT the Alliance Government's budget for 1990-91. The Government regards this budget as its most important product since assuming office. The implementation of sound financial management in government in the ACT has been high in our objectives from the outset, and this budget is a demonstration of our commitment to that objective. The budget marks a true turning point in ACT financial management.
The Government has had to make very difficult decisions to bring about necessary structural changes in preparation for reduced levels of funding by the Commonwealth while still maintaining high quality services for the people of the ACT. The Commonwealth has not made our task easy. It has not honoured its undertaking to continue grants to the ACT at real 1987-88 levels. This year, $50m will have been frozen by the Commonwealth - funds that should have come to the ACT under the guarantee. To compound this, the Commonwealth has given virtually no assistance to establish self-government. The Commonwealth has declined to repair or replace the well-documented run-down major assets passed to the ACT - assets such as hospitals, buses and schools. Land with no substantial national purpose has been retained by the Commonwealth, and the national capital planning processes still far exceed legitimate national needs.
The ACT Government and community must now rely on their own resources to establish a strong, prosperous Canberra. The Commonwealth's assistance is about to be reduced even more significantly. This is the last of the three years of funding guaranteed by the Commonwealth. After 1990-91, the Prime Minister has foreshadowed a two-year transitional arrangement to State-type funding, the details of which remain to be made explicit.
Our task has not been made any easier by the previous Government's wasted opportunity when framing last year's budget. It failed to make any significant structural adjustments. The attempt to undertake a number of small changes, however well intentioned, made little impact on the underlying budgetary problem. This was graphically illustrated by the forward estimates that I was confronted with soon after taking office. If its approach had been continued into this year, it is my view that the quality of ACT Government services would definitely have fallen this year, with inevitable further declines in future years.
In addition to the special issues of the ACT's transition to State-like funding levels, we face common difficulties with the States and the Northern Territory. These include
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