Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 9 Hansard (23 November) . . Page.. 2466 ..

MR BERRY: Well, I just - - -

Mr De Domenico: It is just a feeling he has in his blood.

MR BERRY: No. Every sample of community concern that I come across, Mr De Domenico, makes it pretty clear to me that you are on the nose. That is well deserved, too. This budget is something that will impact on the community. I know activists out there in the community who are concerned about library services and who do not believe you. I do not believe you either. One thing I do hear is a categorical commitment to cut services. That is very clear.

Mrs Carnell: To cut services? I just thought that was quite the opposite.

MR BERRY: You want to have a look at Hansard and see what you said.

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (10.56): I listened very carefully to Mr De Domenico's defence of his Urban Services budget. Particularly did I listen to Mr De Domenico's expose of what he believed were the good things in this budget. Nowhere in Mr De Domenico's comments did I hear anything about the closure of the Ainslie Transfer Station. It is my belief, Mr Speaker, that this was yet another example of where this Government has behaved in a totally secretive and underhand manner. Where was their election commitment to close Ainslie Transfer Station? When did we hear of Mrs Carnell or Mr Humphries, as members in that area, going to the Canberra electorate and saying, "By the way, if you elect us, we are going to close your transfer station."? Of course, they did not.

Mr Humphries: We did not know we were going to do it until after the election.

MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, now they say they did not know they were going to do it until after they got into government. Well, why did you do it? Mr Speaker, I would have thought that if they wanted to present themselves as an honest government, if they wanted to present themselves as a government that makes clear what its commitments are, as we keep hearing from them, they either would have been up front about their intentions with regard to the Ainslie Transfer Station or would not have done it.

The fact is, Mr Speaker, that this Government has taken action there which I think they will live to regret. What they have done is involve all of the residents in that northern area of Canberra in a 40 kilometres round trip to get their waste to the Belconnen tip. That 40 kilometres round trip, Mr Speaker, will be beyond some of those people, particularly the older residents there. They will not think it is worth while. The cost to those residents of making a 40 kilometres round trip, the cost to our environment of having all those additional trips made, has not been taken into account by this Government. They just bought the short-term, bottom line, hard monetarist solution. They closed the transfer station. I doubt, Mr Speaker, whether any of them have ever been there. I doubt whether any of them have ever visited the recycling services there, or have ever taken anything to the Revolve station that was there. Mr Speaker, I think it is an absolutely despicable trick to have pulled on the residents of that old Canberra North area.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .