Month: August 1993

The ratepayers are restless. A meeting on Thursday night called to set up a ratepayers’ association was told that Kerry Packer has a much lower rates bill for his Sydney harbourside mansion than the upmarket places in Canberra.

It is an emotive example. However, it shows the sticky position the ACT Government has got itself into. Essentially, the ACT Government is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Peculiarly, the ACT embraces both local and state government functions. In the other states and territories they are divided. The local councils collect rates revenue and levy some other charges for the provision of services like garbage collection and road maintenance. The state governments collect revenue and levy charges to run schools and hospitals.
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One cannot help feeling a little like Voltaire when looking at Wayne Berry’s decision to put a hospice on Acton Peninsula.

I disagree with what he is doing, but I will defend (if not to the death at least in print) his right to do it.

It is troubling that the Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe, has chimed in on the issue and that Kate Carnell wants the Federal Parliament’s joint committee on the national capital to flick the respirator switch attached to Berry’s plans.
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This compares with an overall increase of 4.14 per cent in federal grants to states and territories. The precise way this will affect Canberrans will not be known until next month’s ACT Budget.

Per head the grant cut is $284, or 13.08 per cent on last year’s per head grant. The other states and territories will get an average per head increase of $60.

Federal grants made up a tad under a half of ACT Government revenue last year.

The Federal Budget also provides a 3.1 per cent cut in the Public Service. About 20,000 of the 160,000 Federal public servants work in the ACT, excluding ACT Administration public servants still under the Federal Act. It could translate into 600-odd jobs.

The total Federal grant of $568 million for 1993-94 (down from $640 million) reflects the transition to state-type funding for the ACT. Grants to all other states and territories were increased, except for a slight decrease for South Australia.

The ACT will get $1888 per head in Federal funding next financial year, down from $2172 this year. Four states do worse and three better, and the ACT is still above the average, reflecting some national-capital disabilities.

On the more cheerful side, the Budget provides $114 million over five years for purpose-built accommodation for the Australian Geological Survey Organisation.

Further, the ACT’s own budgetary affairs are in better order than any other state or territory. ACT debt as a ration of gross state product is about 3 per cent and interest on it is less than half a per cent of outlays. This compares to more than 30 per cent and 16 per cent respectively in the rust-belt states.

Co-incidentally, the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, announced yesterday that the ACT Budget came in at about $60 million better than Budget and the Budget practically balanced. Expenditure was $31.1 less than budgeted.

This will put the ACT in a better position to meet the Federal cuts without less affect on programs and less need for new revenue measures. Still, the ACT has to find some $72 million.

The Budget papers revealed that at least some people in the ACT are doing well. One person report an income of more than $1 million and 12 reported incomes between $500,000 and $1 million.

The Leader of the ACT Opposition, Kate Carnell, accused the ACT Government of deception yesterday over funding for an abortion clinic.

She cited a Cabinet briefing made in May last year about strategies to fund and legislate for the clinic. The briefing was made public on the ABC’s Matt Abraham show yesterday.

The briefing suggested dealing with the issue early in the term so as not to prolong the agony. It nominated who in the Assembly would support a free-standing clinic and who would oppose. It warned that if it were delayed Independents Michael Moore and Helen Szuty might introduce a Bill. They would get any credit for introducing Labor’s policy and “”we would get the pain”.
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The ACT Legislative Assembly rejected yesterday a motion by Gary Humphries (Lib) that no public money be spent to subsidise a private abortion clinic in the ACT.

The Assembly voted on party lines with the Independents voting with the Government (Dennis Stevenson was absent).

Mr Humphries acknowledged that a majority of the Assembly thought a woman had a right to chose so did not want to canvas the moral issue. However, he thought other health issues should have priority. Abortions could be obtained in Sydney or in ACT public hospitals.
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Canberra would still be a bush capital in 2020, the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said yesterday.
At that time, Australia would be a republic and the states abolished, she said, partially tongue in cheek. In their place would be 25 regional governments, and this region would be a model for the rest of the country.

She stressed that if the region were to have a utopian future, it would have to be worked at; it would not just happen. She emphasised the region because Canberra would straddle the ACT border in the next century. (Indeed to some extent it does now.)
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The ACT Opposition accused Labor’s recent appointee as head of the ACT Tourism Commission, Charles Wright, yesterday of being a bagman for disgraced former Western Australian Premier Brian Burke.

The Leader of the Opposition, Kate Carnell, asked whether the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, had been aware that Mr Wright had been named in the WA Inc Royal Commission as a bagman at the time of his appointment. She asked whether the appointment was an example of the Labor Party helping one of its mates.

Ms Follett described it as a disgraceful slur on a man who had an excellent record and was well-respected in the ACT community who had done an excellent job in promoting ACT tourism.
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Employees of a company in liquidation of which Charles Wright is a director are owed more than $20,000, mainly in annual leave, according to the liquidator.

Mr Wright is the chairman of the ACT Tourism Advisory Board. His appointment came under fire by the Opposition in the ACT Legislative Assembly this week.

The company Canberra Mail and Print Pty Ltd went into liquidation the month before the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, appointed him. On Thursday she cited his “”excellent reputation as a businessman” as one of the reasons for the appointment.
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The chairman of the ACT Tourism Advisory Board, Charles Wright, was the director of a company that went into liquidation the month before his appointment, according to publicly available company records.

The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, was asked in the Legislative Assembly by Gary Humphries (Lib) if it was true that Mr Wright was a director Canberra Publishing and Printing and Canberra Mail and Print Pty Ltd which went into liquidation owing the ACT Government hundreds of thousands of dollars and had those companies not paid group tax.

Mr Humphries quoted a statement made by Ms Follett on Wednesday that she had appointed Mr Wright to the tourism board because of his “”excellent reputation as a businessman”.
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An indoor sports stadium for Tuggeranong and a neighbourhood centre for Gungahlin are among projects that never made it from the 1992-93 forward design list to the capital works list of 1993-94, according to Independent MLA Helen Szuty. Ms Szuty compared the forward design list the capital works listed recently published for 1993-94.

She called last week for an explanation from the Government as to why the following forward designs of 1992-93 will not become bricks and mortar in 1993-94: The Tuggeranong stadium and the Gungahlin centre, weatherproofing at Belconnen bus interchange, a roundabout at the Cotter Road-McCulloch Street intersection, extensions to the Belconnen fire station and a community arts access workshop.

She says the 1993-94 forward-design list comprises 17 projects. She wonders how many of them will make it to the capital works for 1994-95. These include a high school for Gungahlin, Nicholls pre-school and primary school and the refurbishment of the City police station.
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