Page 1260 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009

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applauded, the actions that he cheered on—whether it was the slashing of the NCA, whether it was the cuts in other places—are the only reason, according to this government, apart from the global financial crisis. But the primary reason is the decisions taken by the commonwealth, which Jon Stanhope supported. He supported it because he said it was about the war on inflation.

Well, we know that was a phoney war. We know it was manufactured by Kevin Rudd to try and mount a political argument. He inherited an economy in fantastic shape, he inherited an economy going gangbusters, and he needed to manufacture a problem. Of course, he did talk it up, and since then, since the war on inflation was no longer going to work, we have heard Kevin Rudd talking the economy down. It will be interesting to see, given that Jon Stanhope supported Kevin Rudd in cutting the public service here in Canberra, whether he will support him further, as we see the federal budget coming. But they are some of the external factors.

It is a nonsense argument from the Chief Minister to now claim that the very problem is the thing that he applauded, the thing that he supported—decisions taken in the commonwealth budget. You cannot have it both ways. The fact is that here locally we still see significant problems in our planning system. We still see nuisance and regressive taxes. We still see a failure to really respond when it comes to things like land supply. We still see a failure to deliver capital works. We see it with the prison. It was a 374-bed facility; it became a 300-bed facility. The artwork is left but the gym has gone. I think the chapel might be back; I am not sure. But it is not open, and we have seen a massive downgrading. We have seen the costs blow out. This is a government that does deserve to be condemned for their performance on the economy. (Time expired.)

MS BURCH (Brindabella) (11.01): The Chief Minister has provided a comprehensive response to the motion brought forward by Mr Smyth and has moved an amendment. It is unfortunate that the opposition spokesman on economic matters sees fit to talk down the economy. It is indeed unfortunate that the opposition is talking down the economy at a time when the economy is sound and showing remarkable resilience. The Chief Minister has provided a range of economic statistics on the labour market, the housing market and investment to highlight the strength in our economy. But at a time when people are feeling nervous, at a time of economic uncertainty, for the opposition to down-talk the economy is irresponsible.

It is remarkable that Mr Smyth has not tried to understand the national accounts, for if he did he would have noticed that both household consumption and the private investment components of demand in the ACT have recorded positive growth in the December quarter 2008. In seasonally adjusted terms, household consumption was up by 0.8 per cent and private investment was up by 1.7 per cent. I remind those opposite that the volume of private investment in the ACT in the December quarter 2008 was $988 million. This is close to the record level of $993 million in the June quarter 2006. Dwelling investment went up by 8.3 per cent in the December quarter. The reason for our state final demand being negative was a drop in the commonwealth government’s investment, and that alone contributed 1.3 per cent.

With respect to the volatility in the quarterly accounts for the ACT, the history of this ABS series for the ACT dates to the September quarter 1985. That is 93 quarterly


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