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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4075 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

We are in no way suggesting that there are not rough times ahead, but all the indications are that what we did in this budget appears to be working. However, those opposite want to say, "It cannot work. It cannot possibly work. It is a lot of rubbish". The indications are not that it is rubbish. The indications are that the stimulation that we put in place for the business sector - - -

Mr Whitecross: What stimulation?

MRS CARNELL: The policies that we have put in place to give confidence to the business sector - things like the Kick Start program. It was the HIA that said that between 800 and 1,000 jobs could be created as a result of this. It was Unisys that said that 1,000 jobs could be created. Mr Speaker, what we see here is an Opposition that just cannot stand having no ideas of their own, wanting to criticise everything, coming up with no alternatives. On one hand, they say, "Yes, the future is with small business. Yes, we do have to save money in the public sector". On the other hand, they say, "No, you cannot have fewer jobs in the public sector and more in the private sector. That is not acceptable". They say that you cannot go down the path that we have gone down of stimulating the private sector in such areas as business incentive schemes, the loan schemes - - -

Mr Whitecross: You have not stimulated anything.

MRS CARNELL: As you know, that is not what they say.

Mr De Domenico: He was not here.

MRS CARNELL: That is right. He was not here, so he would not have known. I think we all agree that jobs are the most important issue. We should have a rule that you cannot criticise other people's ideas until you have ideas of your own. We have not heard one idea from those opposite, not one approach that might create a job, not even one tiny little idea. I think we should adopt a new standing order, a standing order that says, "Do not criticise until you have an alternative".

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (11.46): Mr Speaker, I want to speak on the very theme that the Chief Minister has just ended on. I think it is very important to put in context the criticisms that have been made by those opposite. If, in looking at what the Opposition has had to say, we asked ourselves what it is that they are posing to the people of Canberra as an alternative vision for the way this Territory is going to meet the very severe economic challenges it now faces, we would have to come away with a pretty murky image of what is going on. Mr De Domenico has summed up beautifully on a piece of paper what it is the Opposition has to say about their strategy. It is a blank piece of paper.

Let us consider the facts. There are a number of elements of the Government's policy. Like any good government, this Government is using a number of areas to be able to meet the fiscal challenge that it is facing. The Government has made some reductions in expenditure in certain areas. Some of those have been discussed even this week:

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