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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 1561 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, while there is much that I like on the surface of this budget, I agree with Mr Quinlan that there is a strange coincidence in the improvement of the operating loss. Our Commonwealth funding has been increased by $85.4m and the operating loss has gone down by $86.3m. The Chief Minister has claimed good financial management for the improved bottom line - and I want to believe it - but the similarity of these two numbers is indeed striking. I appreciate that some tough decisions have been made over the past four or five years and some are still to be made but, to put the bottom line into perspective, the Government must admit that it is riding on the wave of some good economic growth figures and a better than expected grant from the Federal Government. I do not think the Government can claim too much credit for the good growth figures, but I do believe that the officials deserve a pat on the back in relation to the grant from the Federal Government. I congratulate the Under Treasurer, Mr Lilley, on a job well done.

Mr Speaker, there are several aspects of this budget that I particularly like and some that I do not. I also have a number of queries. I was asked on radio yesterday whether I had put in a budget submission this year, to which I replied that I had not. I guess this was only partly true, as since the last election I have had a kind of standing budget submission. The Chief Minister has a copy of my election policies. If they want to know what I want included in any budget, they need just to look up those documents.

To that end, I am pleased that our police are to be issued with better equipment over the next few years. I do not think it is a secret that police resources were badly neglected over the first few years of self-government. The police are finally beginning to catch up with some other areas of the public sector in terms of resource funding. I do not know whether this is because of my involvement here in this place but I will certainly be taking the credit for it.

I also cannot pass up the opportunity to briefly mention the Territory's superannuation liability. Much has been said since the 1996 budget about our unfunded liability, and the Chief Minister's approach this year again is interesting. In taking another $300m from ACTEW, the Chief Minister is once again walking the tightrope of truth between her claim of no new borrowings and making a corporatised government business borrow on her behalf. It is pleasing to see our unfunded superannuation liability receive substantial funding, but I notice that the $300m only keeps us up to date for about two years, so it seems that the Government is perhaps expecting a more permanent solution to come along within that time.

Mr Speaker, I did not place any demands on this budget, but I did place a demand on what the budget ought not to contain - money for a shooting gallery. From what I can see, it is a case of so far so good. During the last sitting week I promised the Health Minister that my office would go over his budget with a fine toothcomb, and I am sure that he is pleased about that. I can assure Mr Moore again today that we will certainly be doing just that. Given that Health has the largest individual appropriation and Mr Moore carries around with him the impression that he has been poorly managing his portfolio, I trust that other members will also be giving this line of the budget very close scrutiny. I think Mr Moore often gives us the worst case scenario - I hope he is listening - and then comes back and says, "Look I have fixed it". Maybe I am just a cynic.

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