Page 1272 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009

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… about the biggest mistake we could make would be to talk ourselves into unnecessary economic weakness …

The Chief Minister and the Treasurer constantly talk about how they have got no control over the situation, they cannot stimulate the economy because it is too small, their budget is just a minuscule budget in the grand scheme of things, and all the government programs really do not make too much of an impact. That is one of the biggest mistakes we could make, according to Governor Stevens. I wonder whether the Chief Minister or the Treasurer would admit to that. I doubt it. The Chief Minister and the Treasurer are responsible for our economic situation, and they can take that as an opportunity to get us out of this situation. I certainly hope they take it up.

MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.39): This motion is simply asking for the government to shoulder its share of the responsibility for the things that it has under its control in the ACT. That is not an unreasonable ask of a government. It is asking this government for a clear enunciation of how it intends to deal with the recession, something it has not been able to do.

The Chief Minister says, “Two-thirds of how you combat the circumstances we face is by generating confidence.” The question has to be asked: why do we have a Treasurer who says things like “Don’t get your hopes up; we cannot stimulate this economy”? We start with a mini-budget and we end with a local initiatives package. If there is a speech or a lecture to be given on talking down the economy, perhaps the Chief Minister should take the Treasurer aside and say: “Now, listen, Katy, you’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to stop saying, ‘It’s only guesswork.’ You’ve got to stop saying, ‘We’re too small to stimulate.’ You’ve got to stop saying, ‘Don’t get your hopes up.’” If people are looking to this government for hope, they are not going to find it.

The best way for the government to end this debate is to tell us how they are going to rectify the situation—tell us how they are going to rectify the things under their control or if they will simply throw their hands up and say: “We’re actually not in control. It’s all because of people not in this jurisdiction and not in this country and therefore we are inept, we are useless and we have no idea.”

This motion asks for the government to detail its plans and its solution to manage this recession. That is not unreasonable. It is not as though we did not know that it has been going on for some time. Lehman’s collapse was back in August, but commentators like Peter Martin were talking about this in March last year. Twelve months ago, they were saying, “This is the day we heard the economy snap.” They were the words he used. He points to the day when it turned.

Yet, as both Mr Doszpot and Mr Coe have pointed out so eloquently, we had a government, a Chief Minister who was then Treasurer, blithely continue to say, “We have got unparalleled economic growth; we have got $3 billion of business in the pipeline; we have got four years of surpluses because of the policies that I put in place.”

Mr Hanson: Guaranteed his surpluses.


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