Page 3780 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 October 1990
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that the Commonwealth should remove the power of the Governor-General to disallow or amend an Assembly law. In this there exists the potential for interference in ACT affairs by the Commonwealth, with no accountability to the ACT electorate. Again, this runs counter to democratic principles and the Commonwealth need do no more than rely on the power that already exists for ACT laws to be repealed or overridden through the passage of superior laws in the Commonwealth Parliament.
The house is well aware of the shabby treatment handed to the ACT regarding transitional financial arrangements. The Commonwealth's legacy to the ACT includes a major shortfall of revenue, the transfer of run down assets, and a guaranteed period of financial transition of effectively only two years, compared with the 12 years granted to the Northern Territory.
Mr Wood: And crazy government along with it. Crazy government is what we got out of it.
MR KAINE: If there is any craziness in the Government it comes from the Opposition, Mr Wood. As if this was not bad enough, the Commonwealth then partially reneged on its real terms funding guarantee by retaining some $21m of our money last year. It has now given us $7m of that money but that still leaves a $14m shortfall from last year. The original sum was added to this year, with the Commonwealth retaining an additional $37m of our funds. That is absolutely scandalous.
This Government is not just pointing the finger and crying poor. We have responded to the very real urgency of the situation with sensible initial efficiency measures spread fairly across the whole of the ACT community. However, the Commonwealth's disgraceful backdown on its promises is to the detriment of the orderly, smooth transition of the ACT to the same Commonwealth-State financial relationships enjoyed by the Northern Territory and the smaller States.
A significant part of the committee's report is taken up with the vexed issue of an electoral system for the ACT, and many aspects of the issues are examined in comprehensive detail in that report. As you will see, the Government's response to recommendations Nos. 11 to 17 and 19 have been consolidated with the substantive response contained in connection with recommendation 10. By taking this approach the Government intends no disrespect to the committee; nor does it diminish the value of the recommendations as weighty food for thought.
However, the Government believes that the principles that should be applied to the resolution of the question of an electoral system for the ACT are very simple and we think it best to express them clearly and unequivocally. At the very heart of these principles is the Alliance Government's belief that the Commonwealth Government should face up to its responsibilities, spelt out in its own legislation, and
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