Page 42 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 April 1992
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LABOR GOVERNMENT PROGRAM
Ministerial Statement and Paper
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the program of the third Labor Government.
Leave granted.
MS FOLLETT: I thank members. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to outline the program for the ACT's third Labor Government. This Government will build on the achievements of the first two ACT Labor governments.
I believe that we should begin our new period of government by clearly outlining our intentions. Our commitment to open and accountable government is demonstrated by this statement today because it will provide a basis for judging our performance over the next three years. The Government also believes that the community needs a clear agenda from the Government - an agenda which will allow business, unions, families and individuals to be confident about the future of our community.
Above all, Madam Speaker, I wish to emphasise that this is a Labor Government with a commitment to social justice principles, a commitment to implementing the election undertakings we have given to the people of Canberra, and a commitment to the objectives and traditions of the Labor Party.
Let there be no doubt about our agenda. Despite the great difficulties and instability of the last Assembly, the first two Labor governments of this Territory managed to implement almost all the specific election commitments we gave at the 1989 election. The Assembly and the community can therefore expect that the policies we announced in the course of the recent election campaign will form the basis for the next three years of government.
Labor's proposals for the ACT are, above all, responsible, affordable and designed to protect and enhance the future life of our community. They stand in stark contrast to the grab-bag of promises thrown together by the Liberal Party. Their extravagant promises could not be afforded by the ACT community. Many of them were so badly conceived that they could not be implemented, for legal or practical reasons. They promised chaos and confrontation for our community.
Madam Speaker, I said just over a week ago that our goal must be to secure our Territory's future and the well-being of our community. A most important part of this task is the economic security provided by a stable Territory budget. Clearly, the impending decisions of the Grants Commission and the Commonwealth's financial offer to the Premiers Conference will greatly affect our future options. I give the Assembly and the Canberra community an undertaking that this Government will continue to press the Territory's case with the Commonwealth at every opportunity. We will not shrink from that responsibility, regardless of the political complexion of the Federal government.
I should remind the Assembly that it was a Labor Government which secured access to the Transitional Funding Trust Account in 1989. It was the Labor Government, not Mr Kaine, which gained agreement to ACT membership of the
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