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(Extension of time granted) . . Page.. 273 ..

I would like to repeat that last sentence for Mrs Carnell's benefit:

Our budgets will serve the interests of the community, not the reverse.

It is quintessential to the Labor Party that budget management is a tool which commits the orderly and humane delivery of services to the community and, above all, to those members of the community who most need public services. No matter whether they are young or old, poor or sick, homeless or dispossessed, there are, and sadly there always will be, those who depend on government services to sustain a quality of life that many of us take for granted. The fact that we live in a city which provides us with a standard of living that is unsurpassed by almost any other city in the world serves only to heighten the need of those who, often through no fault of their own, are not able to share in those advantages.

One of the most visible and telling differences between the policies and philosophies of the Labor Party and those of the Liberals and other conservatives is on this commitment to social justice, this imperative to meet the needs of the disadvantaged in our community. (Extension of time granted) Those people do not want contestability in the marketplace or any other dry, ideological jargon. What they need is a level of community service that meets their needs; and I cannot believe that there are any fair-minded Canberrans, and Canberrans are fair minded, who would disagree.

Unfortunately, under this Liberal Government many needy, troubled people in our community will now be denied the community services which they need and which they know would have been provided under a Labor government. There will be no aged advisory council, nor the provision of an ethnic aged liaison officer. Senior citizens organisations will not be provided with capital assistance to enable them to expand their facilities. The ACT Council of Social Service has been threatened with defunding because the Chief Minister has a longstanding and personal dislike of its chief executive. Women will get no additional assistance in returning to the work force, and the facilities for our young disabled will scarcely be improved.

I serve notice to this Assembly and to the people of Canberra that, even from opposition, the Labor Party will seek to implement those vital key policies; and we will do so because we will not sit idly by while this Government sets about destroying the very fabric of life for so many of our citizens. When we finally see the Government's three-year budget strategy and its budget, we will examine it in fine detail. We will seek to protect the services to this community. We will seek to protect the assets of this community from the excesses of the Liberals. We will seek to prevent the implementation of those Liberal policies which clearly do not have the support of this community or of the ordinary working people of Canberra, and we will protect the jobs of Canberra's public servants. In short, Mr Speaker, we will represent the interests of those whom we were elected to represent and, indeed, the whole Canberra community.

Debate (on motion by Ms Horodny) adjourned.

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