The ACT Government is the most ideologically left-wing government in the western world, according to the Leader of the Opposition, Alexander Downer.
No matter which party was in power, the days of the Federal Government being the source of wealth and growth for the ACT were over, he said on a visit to the CT Legislative Assembly yesterday.
The ACT had to put out the welcoming mat to business if it was to prosper.
He said, however, that there would be no public service bashing by him and that he had a great deal of respect for public servants.
Mr Downer came north of the lake yesterday to visit the ACT Legislative Assembly, to hear college youth debate in a pretend parliament, to state that Kate Carnell had “”an excellent chance” of the being the next Chief Minister, and to praise public servants rather than bury them.
“”There will be no Public Service bashing and I can say that in my heart because I was a public servant myself once so I can sympathise with Canberra public servants being bashed by politicians a few kilometres away in Parliament House,” he said. “”They won’t have to suffer any of that from me.
“”A great number of Australians work for the public sector and I have a great deal of respect for may of those people. We won’t have an anti-Canberra policy.”
Mr Downer’s words contrasted with others in his party in the past who vowed to cut Canberra at the knees.
Mr Downer said, “”Canberra is working better and better as a city and has developed a real personality of its own and I think that is very exciting.”
“”Canberra is a city all Australians should be proud of,” he said.
The Labor Party took Canberra for granted.
Mr Downer said he had been in Canberra often in his youth (his father was a Minister in the Menzies Government) and he remembered Woden Valley when it was paddocks. He was committed to the city.
“”Federal politicians should stop knocking Canberra on one hand or electorally taking it for granted,” he said.
His party would not “”steal” MLAs who were fighting the next ACT election to stand in the newly created Federal seat in the ACT.
Mr Downer said the Follett Government was still in the 1950s. It looked at things in an ideological rather than practical way.
“”Businesses are scared away from Canberra because you have got the most left-wing government in place in the western world in the ACT,” he said. “”You want a government with practical commonsense solutions to Canberra’s problems. You don’t want a whole bunch of 1950s style ideologues running the government here. That’s not going to attract business investment.”
Business investment was in a slump throughout Australia. It was improving in some pockets, however, it was flat in the ACT and the Government was doing nothing to improve that.
“”If Ms Follett sits around waiting for the Federal Government to do something, she’ll be waiting a long time,” he said.
On the museum, he agreed it was unacceptable for items of Australian heritage, history and culture to be hidden away in a warehouse in Mitchell where few could see them. He agreed in principle to the construction of a museum but would not commit himself to timing and would not buy into the argument about where it should go.
On federal funding, he said a Federal coalition government would reduce tied grants to the states and territories, replacing them with untied grants and a formula under which they could project funding several years ahead, rather than the present farce of the present ad-hoc COAG funding arrangements under which the Federal Treasurer determined funding and the states had to cop it.