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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2314 ..

Not surprisingly, 50 of those 63 jobs will be cut from CityScape. This is just a continuation of this government's attack on CityScape. Over the last two years the government has been market testing, and this testing has led to the slow death that we are seeing in CityScape. The government has forgotten about general everyday maintenance of Canberra.

We've seen guard rails that are rusty, grass long, more potholes forming in the roads, and metal rubbish bins in public places are a thing of the past. The government is not allocating appropriate funds to maintain these much-needed everyday amenities. What they're doing with this money, this windfall, is fixing up all the roads leading to the Olympics, and the grounds around the area are being spruced up, but other areas are suffering.

The first part of this budget debate talks about the content of the budget. I must say that having a poker machine win the size of what the Grants Commission gave to the government between the draft budget process and now, has enabled the government to promise lots and lots of things. Good on them. We will see how genuine they are when they come to spend the stuff. However, the budget is also about confidence in the government. This budget is not only talking about money, it is talking about an expression of confidence or otherwise in the government's performance, and thus their right to continue on.

This is the question that is facing members of the crossbench tonight, and it is that principle which forms the basis of the opposition's constant rejection of the budget. If we feel that the government has not performed properly over the last year, or few years, it is our obligation not to let them continue again. (Extension of time granted.)

Let's look at the stewardship of this government. Let's look at the hallmarks of this government. They have given the word "futsal" a new meaning. It has a new meaning now: it is slang for a game with a round ball played like indoor soccer, but without any walls. That is a joke and everybody knows it is a joke. They bored holes in the futsal slab so that tents could be erected on it, so that we could have exotic animals and circuses. It was going to be a circus from the day it was laid.

The Bruce Stadium fiasco-the contracts, the overnight loan-smacks of the Khemlani affair. What about the sale of corporate suites out at Bruce Stadium? How many people do you think were bowled over in the rush to go and buy those corporate suites? Probably both of them.

What about the total cost of the stadium? You still can't have all football codes on it. You have kicked the Aussie rules off and spent an enormous amount of money fixing up Manuka Oval, when you didn't have to do it in the first place. The whole thing is smelling so much that an enormous amount of time has been taken by the Auditor-General just to find out how much is wrong with it. Will we run a competition on the number of volumes the Auditor-General will produce as a result? I am putting my money on a dozen. I wonder how many trees are going to die just to get that report from the Auditor-General.

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