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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (28 November) . . Page.. 3287 ..
MR QUINLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Treasurer, and may I first, sir, congratulate you on the endorsement you received from Peter Reith at around about lunchtime today.
Recently published Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that, over the last n years, the ACT's State Final Demand originating from the public sector has grown as a proportion of State Final Demand. The Treasurer's own briefing to the Select Committee on Budget Parameters and Principles includes the following:
A major driver of growth in State Final Demand in the ACT has been the Commonwealth government expenditure. Notwithstanding the diversification of the ACT economy and the growth of the private sector, the government still represents well over half of State Final Demand. While many private companies have benefited from outsourcing by the Commonwealth government, most remain dependent on the Commonwealth for their core activity.
Does this render continued claims by the government that you now lead that Canberra has become a private sector town nothing more than exaggeration and propaganda or, in Mr Smyth's parlance, deliberate misinformation?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, Mr Speaker, it does not amount to that. What it amounts to is acknowledgment that the ACT's economy is now far more intimately tied up with the success or failure of the private sector than was the case just 10 years ago. The railing that we hear from Labor about this matter continues to amaze me. It really make me wonder just what kind of commitment we can expect from the Labor Party with respect to the operation of the private sector should it be fortunate enough to win government at next year's election.
I have to say, Mr Speaker, that I look across to those opposite and I do not see anybody with any involvement whatever in the private sector. I do not recall Mr Quinlan having a job in the private sector-
Mr Quinlan: Six years of it, working for myself.
MR HUMPHRIES: Six years out of how many?
Mr Quinlan: Before I came here. The last six years.
MR HUMPHRIES: You were with Actew, as I recall.
Mr Quinlan: No, no.
MR HUMPHRIES: If six years out of about, what, 150 years of experience on the opposition benches, amounts to a large amount of private sector experience that is great to hear. The fact is that, whether you take Mr Quinlan's view about this-that the public sector is a bit more important than the private sector-or my view, which is that the ACT's economy is now tied up with the success of the private sector, you cannot afford to ignore either.
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