Page 3876 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
compares with a fall nationally of 0.3 per cent. Over those two months, there was a fall nationally,
but that has not been reflected in the ACT. On an annual basis, retail turnover in the ACT was 3.4 per cent higher in August 1990 than in August 1989. This, again, compares with a fall nationally of 2.5 per cent during the same time.
I think the level of retail turnover in the ACT is encouraging, but it should be noted that the national trend is downward. Smaller retailers seem to be showing subdued results, Mr Speaker, while larger retailers are showing modest improvement. It is a bit hard to tell exactly where the reduction is taking effect at the moment. While the August statistics indicate that the economy is slowing, that retail sales are flat and that many small retailers in the ACT are experiencing very difficult times, the ACT is still in a better position than the other States and Territories in this matter.
Commonwealth Funding
MR STEVENSON: My question is addressed to the Chief Minister. Does he have any comment on the Federal Government's decision to hand over $15m of special assistance for South African activities in consultation with the ANC when we are told that there are insufficient funds to keep open schools in Canberra?
MR KAINE: My only comment on that, Mr Speaker, would be that the Commonwealth Treasurer and the Prime Minister have to make policy decisions within the context of their budget. I presume that they have weighed up the economic and other advantages to Australia in general in providing that assistance to South Africa against what the benefits might be if they use the money in some other way. It really does not bear on the ACT problems at the moment. We are in the last year of the three-year period of guaranteed income.
Mr Stevenson: Was it not two years?
MR KAINE: It was effectively two years, but it is the last year in relation to which the Commonwealth guaranteed some real input to the ACT budget. We know that, in effect, some of the money has been put in a trust fund and is not immediately available to us, but I expect that in the longer term the Commonwealth will release that money to us. Even if we had it, it would make no difference to the Government's school rationalisation process because we have 13,000 vacant places in our schools, which we cannot afford to maintain. We are rationalising our education budget, just as we are restructuring other areas of government.
It is a long way from the Commonwealth making available money to South Africa, on the one hand, to the ACT Government and its school budget, on the other. I really do not see the link between the two.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .