LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Friday, 1St November, 1991
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Friday, 1st November, 1991 ______ The President took the chair at 9 a.m. The President offered the Prayers. PETITIONS Abortion Petition praying that because of recognition of the right to life of the unborn child, the House support the Procurement of Miscarriage Limitation Bill, received from the Hon. Dr Marlene Goldsmith. Stray Dogs Petition praying that the Premier fulfil his promise to ban the sending of stray dogs to laboratories within New South Wales, received from the Hon. R. S. L. Jones. BUDGET ESTIMATES AND RELATED PAPERS Financial Year 1991-92 Debate resumed from 30th October. The Hon. I. M. MACDONALD [9.5]: As I was saying in my truncated assessment of the Budget last Wednesday night, this Government has lost its credibility as an economic manager. It lost that primarily because, after spending $1 million whooping it up at the Regent Hotel, it released the Curran report. Though that report emphasised debt and liability, this Government brings forward a budget that will dramatically increase both the debt and the liability of this State. The State debt is $9 billion. The Hon. J. M. Samios: What is the debt of Victoria? The Hon. I. M. MACDONALD: The Hon. J. M. Samios refers to Victoria. I am happy to deal with that instantly. New South Wales taxation revenue per head of population is now $250 in excess of the average taxation level for an individual in Victoria. Yet members of this Government claim they are economic managers. The Government claims to be concerned about the level of debt in this State. Time Page 4073 and again it uses the Victorian situation in an attempt to justify its appalling economic performance when we in New South Wales are taxed $251 per head per annum more than Victorians. That is a fact which honourable members in this Chamber could not dispute. Before dealing with the Budget in general terms, I turn to two areas of concern. The first a funding cutback to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for the Blue Mountains National Park of $220,000. In the last financial year its funding was $405,000; this financial year it is $186,000. This is a cut of 56 per cent, at a time when there is a widespread public campaign to obtain for the Blue Mountains National Park world heritage listing. Unfortunately these substantial cuts to funding will undermine the genuine and important campaign of the people of the mountains and therefore jeopardises this park. This is an atrocious step by the Minister. The Minister for the Environment sacked Alderman Joy Anderson, a member of the national parks advisory committee. That is the act of a childish dictator. The Minister is acting in a way that would please dictators of 50 or 60 years ago. The Opposition is concerned, as I am sure the Hon. R. S. L. Jones is, about the attacks on the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Five National Parks and Wildlife Service positions in the Blue Mountains have not been filled. That national park, one of the most popular parks in this country, is being destroyed because of this Government's lack of interest in the environment and in the national parks system. No wonder Dr Terry Metherell had to leave the Government. He was concerned that in recent years the shade of green of the Government had disappeared as the leading lights of the Gay-Bull conspiracy came to power and influenced environmental protection policy. As a consequence the Blue Mountains National Park, one of the finest examples of our heritage and one of the most used parks in this State and country, is suffering disgracefully under Tim Moore and the stranglehold of the National Party, which wants to establish a mine or chop down a tree wherever possible. We have already seen what is happening at Chaelundi State Forest and how the Government is resisting Terry Metherell's fine initiative for the establishment of the Nattai wilderness. The Government will not take the steps necessary to improve the environmental legacy of this State to provide our children and future generations with a proper national parks system. The move to slowly strangle the Blue Mountains National Park and run down its facilities is not good economic management but a disaster. That park is very popular and is used by many people. If the Government does not spend money to improve the tracks and the stairways that lead into the various sectors of the park, environmental degradation undoubtedly will occur. The Government will be responsible for that degradation because it does not care about the environment. The few remaining green Liberals opposite and in the other Chamber are dominated by the dead hand of the National Party on environmental policy in this State. In the last three and a half years the Hon. R. B. Rowland Smith - a leading National Party dead hand - ripped up a bit of green in the western suburbs to put in the Eastern Creek track that no one wants to use, which cost $92 million of the taxpayers' money. The Page 4074 Minister for School Education and Youth Affairs nods in agreement because she is embarrassed about that black-hole that has been created out at Eastern Creek. It is interesting to see members opposite liven up because they realise how disgracefully inept, poorly managed and conceived the Eastern Creek fiasco was. While that was happening the main priority of the Hon. R. B. Rowland Smith was to see his ruggers playing around out at Concord or at the Sydney Stadium. It was fortunate for the honourable member that in the past six months his code decided to return to the Stadium. The honourable member maintained that as his priority while the environment of this State was undermined by a Government that has lost any shade of green it might have had. The Hon. D. J. Gay, when he came into this House, said he was a bit pink and green. He was certainly green but not environmentally green. As a consequence, under the Greiner-Murray Government, appalling environmental degradation has occurred. Under the dead hand of the white shoe brigade, the National Party is crushing in the Government any pretence to environmental protection. What is happening in the Blue Mountains National Park is but another example of the Government having lost any sense of direction, if indeed members opposite ever had it. Tim Moore unquestionably had some interest in the environment, as did the former honourable member for Lane Cove, the former Attorney General. Yesterday I received his little book about three and a half years of proud achievement. The way the book was sent to me I thought he was still Attorney General, and I am sure other honourable members were similarly surprised. Terry Metherell, that great shining light of northern suburbs environmentalism is no longer in the Liberal Party. Poor old Tim Moore, with his much reduced department and funding, alone has to cope with the dead hand of pressure being exerted upon environmental policy by people who are more interested in pouring more sewage into the ocean at Coffs Harbour than protecting the environment of this State. [Interruption] The Hon. I. M. MACDONALD: I note that Liberal Party members opposite groan, but they know full well that on the frontbench at the moment is the Hon. Bob Rowland Smith. What has he done about the environment? All he did was put more cars out at Eastern Creek, and that will lead to more air pollution from various races. Fortunately almost divine intervention has ensured that the western suburbs air quality will not be ruined by Bob Rowland Smith's toy; the Government cannot even get a race to proceed on the track, so there will not be a vehicle on that track. We can all thank someone up above that the track will not be used and the people of western Sydney will not suffer further increases in air pollution. I wish to deal specifically with another area of the Budget, having concluded that the cutback in funding for the Blue Mountains National Park is a great worry to the people of the Blue Mountains and should be of concern to anyone who is worried about heritage, particularly environmental heritage. In the Premier's Budget Speech on 24th September he said: Page 4075 The Government is also proud of its achievements in helping low to medium income families to borrow for a home. HomeFund Loans are raised by FANMAC, the largest and most successful issuer of mortgage backed securities in Australia. Under my Government over $3,000 million has been made available to some 38,000 low and middle income home purchasers throughout the State. A further $1,500 million will be available for over 18,000 home seekers in 1991-92. This compares with just over $200 million made available in the last year of the previous Government. I intend to examine this matter fairly closely. Until 1987 some 4,000 loans had been initiated under FANMAC, which was established by the Labor Government in 1985 or 1986. Unquestionably it was a successful program. The Government's orientation has been to use this initiative to broaden into what has been described as rent-buy. Part of the Government's strategy is to induce individuals who live in public housing to leave the public housing sector and purchase their own homes. It is suggested that that will result in more public housing sector funding for low income families. At face value that is a laudable scheme.