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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1238 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

costing a quarter of a million dollars; on public transport, $750,000 was committed for further studies into light rail, with $250,000 already spent, and there was $62,000 for the Nightrider bus service; on sport, there was $107,000 to establish sports betting and $85,000 to maintain some ovals - over budget. In all, $31m was identified by the department in the lead-up to the 1995 election. I thought I would remind the house of that.

MS McRAE (10.58): An interesting point on which to begin is to remind everybody of what happened 21/2 years ago, because all we have seen in the last 21/2 years - and it is thoroughly exemplified in this budget - is a complete absence of leadership. Whenever I think of this Government, I think of people who have suddenly discovered a car or a coach for the first time; each has a go at pulling all the levers and says, "Isn't this fun? I can make it go this way; I can make it go that way". But nobody has any idea of where it is going or why. There is nothing behind what this Government's drive is all about; there is nothing of substance; and there is no vision about where we are going.

All we have is a mantra about jobs. That is very important, but 93 per cent of the population are not worried about jobs. What about them? What about our community? What about everybody who lives here? What about the fabric of our society? What about the community we share? What about the hopes and aspirations of the people who live here, who care about Canberra and who want Canberra to work? Do we ever hear anything about that? No. All we ever hear about is a reduction in spending in the Chief Minister's Department, which comes at a profound cost which is never discussed. We hear nothing about the longer-term good of Canberra; we hear nothing about what this Government is trying to do for the good of Canberra.

On top of that we have now heard for two years running, "Gee whiz, aren't I clever? I have found a new way to find money". The first time it was by selling off our assets, but it was couched in some sort of fancy rental tax avoidance scheme which merely put our buildings out to somebody else's management and made us pay more for the use of them. It is a "gee whiz, whiz-bang, isn't it wonderful" approach, but really it is leading us nowhere. This year we have discovered a brand new scheme: "Let us milk ACTEW for all it has. That will get us out of trouble this year. Too bad about the consequences; too bad about the future". Where on earth is all this leading us? No-one knows. How many buildings can we sell off? How many times can we milk ACTEW? Where are we going? There is no leadership shown from this Government.

Most of all, we see it in the areas of my concern. In education, what have we seen over the last three years and what has this budget delivered? "More of the same", says Mrs Carnell. Well, yes; well and truly more of the same. What has more of the same meant for the people of Canberra? It has meant a complete absence of concern for the most disadvantaged and for those who have to struggle hardest to survive in the ACT. Firstly, we saw the closure of the evening colleges - the one place where people who, for a variety of reasons, had not completed their education, could have a second go. They went very quickly. The justification was, "They are far too expensive, far too dreadful; we cannot possibly keep them open. No, we will open it up to competition. We will give more opportunities to more places to run this show". What happened?

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