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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 2089 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
apply. We have taken our foot off the accelerator. We no longer occupy that premium position. As a result, we have lost the capacity to break the cycle of poverty that afflicts 30,000 people, mainly children, in households in this town living on a couple of hundred dollars a week. The mind boggles.
We have done much, I think, in the last few years to disguise that fact through some of the policies that we have pursued through the beating up of an events-led recovery, such as GMCs, the Olympics, et cetera, concentrating on the good life for those who can afford it at the expense of sparing a thought for those who are marginalised and cannot participate. There is no going to GMC400s for people below the poverty line. There is no going to the Olympics for people below the poverty line. None of these glitzy photo opportunities, these attempts to cheer ourselves out of our own despondency, have any impact, meaning or effect on those living in such chastened and distressing circumstances.
They are issues that I do not think have been addressed. I do not believe that the $2 million or so policy initiatives contained within this budget or within the Chief Minister's portfolio, which one would have hoped might have emanated from the think tank, the policy unit, within the Chief Minister's Department, in any way go to acknowledging poverty, or what poverty is, or how to deal with it.
They are major shortcomings in this government's approach. They are major shortcomings in this government's vision. They do reflect the point that has been made that in this budget, more than in any other budget since self-government, we have missed the opportunity. It is the budget of missed opportunities. We have missed the boat.
There was an opportunity in this budget to do something significant. There was the opportunity to do something significant in a couple of areas. The capacity was there to make a major intervention, be it in relation to poverty, be it in relation to health, be it in relation to education, be it in relation to business stimulation. The opportunity was there and it was fluffed. It was not taken. The government blinked. It went to the vote. It did not go for the vision. It did not go for the future. I do not think it had the foresight, the courage or the vision to take the decisive step in relation to any area of significance and to say, "We have the capacity and we have the resources. We can deal in this budget in a most decisive way with poverty or anything else." The government chose none.
The government, through this budget, could have made a decisive intervention in the education system. It could have made a decisive intervention in relation to the Canberra Hospital. It could have made a decisive intervention in relation to poverty. It did none of these things, as we all know.
The jewel in the crown of this budget is $27 million for free buses. Just imagine what you could do with $27 million if you chose to apply it to education, or you chose to apply it to Canberra Hospital, or you chose to invest it in some way. Treat it as the capacity to invest rather than to spray it around. It was lost. It is a classic lost opportunity. Lost opportunities beset the whole of this budget.
MR BERRY
(8.11): I want to start with a comment in the government response to the Select Committee on Estimates 2001-02. It is in relation to some editorial from the committee which talked about the draft budget process and criticised the difference
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