Page 1957 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009
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MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.32): Just for Mr Hargreaves’s information—and I am sure he knows it—my mother died 20 years ago. I resent comments on that line.
We now know that the budget strategy of the right of the ALP to diversify the economic base of the ACT is to build more prisons and have Family and Community Day—
Mr Seselja: And get rid of boards.
MR SMYTH: and get rid of boards. That is microeconomic reform, according to the right of the ALP. Now, the problem for the doyen of the ALP, the would-be Treasurer, Mr Barr, is that he actually does not understand the numbers. He is the man who has got the numbers in the party room, but does not have the courage to use them. He is the man who should be Deputy Chief Minister, who should be Treasurer, but did not have the courage to put his case forward.
We have seen today exactly why he did not get to where he wants to be. He thinks that saving $50,000 by getting rid of the board of EPIC and dragging it back into a department that is currently looking for at least $10 million in savings, because they have mismanaged their budget so appallingly under Mr Hargreaves, is a good idea. Microeconomic reform is not about making bad decisions.
Mr Hargreaves: Being a paper boy does not qualify you as a small business expert.
MR SMYTH: There you go. If you are a paper boy out there or if you ever delivered papers when you were a child or a young man, you have got no right to a place in the world. There is the stinging retort from Mr Hargreaves. We know that when Mr Hargreaves makes comments like that, he is hurting.
Microeconomic reform is not about knocking off a board and saving $50,000 and putting it back into a department that cannot handle its own affairs. Reform should deliver benefits, not drag something back. We know that over the years the EPIC board has delivered.
Interestingly, in the debate yesterday Mr Barr had to put the knife into Ms Gallagher. He raised the question of the board and asked: how is this Assembly going to go about the difficult task of making the sorts of administrative changes that will be necessary in the long term to restore the territory’s finances to balance? There is a question Ms Gallagher can answer. When will she make the significant administrative reforms that Mr Barr thinks are required? Mr Barr challenges us to say in our speeches in response to the budget what we will do. We will. Perhaps Mr Barr can further explore what reforms should occur that the Treasurer is not putting forward. That is the problem for the government. We have got two streams of thought. We have got a would-be Treasurer who is not up to the job and we have got a Treasurer who has no plan and no ideas and is absolutely clueless on this industry.
It has been an interesting debate. The Chief Minister, the minister for economic development and reform, has not returned to the field. That is sad because I think we
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