Page 2242 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007

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All governments probably put ads in the Chronicle—a four-page spread saying, “This is what your budget does,” and it goes to every Canberra household. But I cannot remember ever having been bombarded by ads on radio stations and on TV one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks or six weeks after the budget. I think they have only recently stopped.

Mr Mulcahy: It is sheer political advertising.

MR STEFANIAK: It is sheer political propaganda—completely over the top, and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. Next year, fellas, stick to taking out a four-page spread in something like the Chronicle. That does get out to households, you can explain your budget in that way, and I do not think anyone could gainsay that.

It is unfortunate, because the Chief Minister and his department do set the priorities for the entire ACT government. As I and others on this side have indicated, many of these priorities are wrong. Many of these priorities change some sensible directions the government might have started with, certainly in relation to the business area—they have been completely thrown out the window. There are misguided priorities, such as the inability to appreciate that in some areas, like business, tourism and sport, if you spend a few dollars, the benefits you reap will be huge, and will overwhelmingly outweigh the amount of money you spend. If you need to cut spending, maybe you do not need an extra 22 or 24 people in the Chief Minister’s Department, for example. Maybe that is where you start to cut spending. That is where you do start to really save. It all about prioritising, which is something that you lot have immense difficulty in doing. Sadly, in terms of the Chief Minister’s Department’s budget, I think that really rams home the misguided priorities of this government.

(Quorum formed.)

MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (6.10): I felt it was opportune to make a few comments in relation to the industrial relations area within the Chief Minister’s—

Mr Mulcahy: Nice of you to drop in.

MR BARR: I heard my name mentioned, Mr Mulcahy, so I thought it was appropriate to come to the chamber just prior to the dinner break and seek to highlight a couple of major priorities in the industrial relations portfolio that are funded in this year’s budget. Perhaps most importantly, I would like to highlight the building and construction industry’s security of payment scheme that was funded to the tune of $75,000 in this financial year as an establishment, with ongoing recurrent expenditure of $110,000 into the outyears.

The initiative will, in the first instance, involve the review and examination of security of payment schemes in other jurisdictions, most particularly in New South Wales, and this information will then be used to develop and establish a model to facilitate the


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