Page 1942 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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affected by the changes in 2006, especially in the education area, there is still a deep sense of bitterness and a deep sense of regret that they do not have a satisfactory explanation as to why these decisions were made. I am sure that the deliberations of the education committee will reflect on the deep sense of dissatisfaction, anger and bitterness that arose in the community because of the fact that all of these decisions were made in a surreptitious way. The fundamental information that underpinned all of those decisions has not been forthcoming and is still not forthcoming even years after the event.
I note that there will be some discussion later in the week in relation to the most recent decision about the strategic and functional review but I think that that is not the end of it. The people of the ACT, irrespective of what the Chief Minister thinks, deserve to know the reasons why they had such substantial cuts. They deserve to know the reasons why next year there will be again substantial cuts. It is incumbent upon us as members of the Legislative Assembly and as the crossbench to ensure that the next process of substantial cuts is much more open and much more accessible to the people of the ACT who will, after all, be bearing the burden of those cuts.
What we have seen over the years is a litany of failure from the Stanhope government and most especially since the departure of the only member of any Stanhope government who was capable of being a Treasurer, Mr Quinlan. We have basically seen the Stanhope’s government Treasury management fall into a state of torpor since then. That is most reflected by the abandonment of the economic white paper and, as Mr Smyth reflected, the removal of target industries and targets generally for more aspirational and flaccid themes. Mr Smyth is right to question what those themes mean.
What those themes mean, Mr Speaker, is that essentially the Stanhope government has thrown up its hands and admitted defeat on expanding the economy. The Treasurer today reflected: “Look, we are in favour of expanding the private economy. We have invested $3 million in business packages.” Let us reflect on it: $3 million out of a $3 billion-plus economy. This is less than 1,000th of the ACT budget that is being directed towards stimulating the private sector in the ACT at a time when every commentator is saying, “Make prudent, long-lasting spending to ensure that employment continues.” One-thousandth of the budget: that is how much the Stanhope government cares about business in the ACT. What we have seen is that the Stanhope government’s commitment to business is 1,000th of the budget. The people who actually produce the income in the ACT and provide the services so that people spend and we can get our GST revenue get 1,000th of the budget, and the Treasurer seems to be proud of that.
This is not a budget to be proud of, and this is not the administration of an economy that the people of the ACT can be proud of. This is an admission of failure. Actually, it is probably not even admission of failure. It is admission of incompetence. The Treasurer does not know what to do. If she did not know before the election because she was not the Treasurer, she became the Treasurer in November and she should have known then where things were.
We had November, December, January, February, March, April for budget consultation. What do we get? We had no budget consultation, no consultation and
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