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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 6 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 1940 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

But Mr Rugendyke was quite right in his comments in relation to the operating loss. I thought it was a very good analogy - that of 344 lotto-type trucks each carrying a million dollars down Northbourne Avenue to pay for that operating loss. He was quite right in his comment and his favourable acknowledgment that this Government is attempting to reduce that operating loss.

Mr Hird, in his dissenting report, I think hit the nail on the head when he quoted Abraham Lincoln, that great American statesman who freed the slaves and also made a number of other very pertinent comments which are still relevant today. That quote reads:

As an individual who undertakes to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured by interest and next, no-one left to borrow from - so must it be with a government.

We have seen that even in Australia, Mr Speaker. We have seen it in Victoria. Surely those opposite would not want us to go down the path of what occurred there under the Cain Labor Government. The Kennett Government had to drag them out of the mire. Take it to a far worse extreme, such as what has happened in Russia where public servants do not even get paid. That is what happens when you have a complete breakdown of the system. It is far better, Mr Speaker, to try to work out these things very early in the piece, and that is something which this Government is addressing. I think the Chief Minister is quite right to say that people expect us to do that. I think they put us in here for our economic management; because we could address the operating loss and go some way towards balancing the books. That is very important. Of course, Mr Rugendyke, I would agree that it is a question of balancing. That is why we have maintained our commitment in terms of increasing primary and secondary schools' funding in real terms. That is why that extra $4.2m is there.

I come now to some of Mr Corbell's comments. I think I have been a very active Youth Minister. I have thoroughly enjoyed going to a number of functions and actively participating in them. Earlier in question time you mentioned Youth Week 97. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in a lot of that. In terms of the youth centres, we have had the debate and I am not going to go through that. We have comments from both the Government and the Estimates Committee. I am not going to go through that.

In relation to your more recent comments, Mr Corbell, about the Aboriginal program which we are working up, you say the Aboriginal people have not been involved. That is not what I understand to be the case, but I will check that out. I think we have a very good record, not only in the youth area but throughout government, and certainly in anything to do with education, in terms of consulting widely with the Aboriginal community and getting them to be active drivers of the process. I will look into that further, Mr Corbell, because your comments somewhat surprise me. It may well be early days but that would seem to fly against what our practice has been for the last 31/2 years. I am happy to follow that up further. I think it is important that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community are actively involved at every stage of any sort of process which government is involved in.

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