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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2797 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Part 12 is the Department of Urban Services. I congratulate Minister Wood in his absence on at least getting the asset management money in the outyears into the budget. It was a decision our cabinet took in the lead-up to the election. It is good to see that the money was retained. Unless we protect the assets, the future will become bleaker and bleaker as the bills build up and become impossible to maintain.

However, there are two clouds over the Urban Services budget. One relates to pay parking. This was not flagged as a commitment or a promise in the lead-up to the election. The other relates to the future of Canberra Connect and the commitment of this government to providing online services to the people of Canberra.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, I do not want to stifle debate and I do not want to be accused of stifling debate, but you know that you are going to have the opportunity presented to you later on to go through these issues line by line.

MR SMYTH: I am aware of that. I am offering a broad overview of where the opposition sees some of the failings of the government. We will certainly be developing these themes in depth later on, Mr Speaker. I have only six or seven items to go.

The government did not alert people to the fact that they were going to bring in pay parking at Belconnen and Tuggeranong. This is a government that said it would be more honest, more open, more transparent. That went out the window with the first budget.

Canberra Connect is important. Everybody talks about delivering the e-city. From what I have been able to ascertain about what goes on around the world and from the interest that was shown in what we were doing here in Canberra, I believe Canberra Connect probably leads the world in giving its citizens the ability to contact their government electronically. I have some concerns over how that will progress in the future.

I would like to hear a commitment from the government to Canberra Connect and to its potential. It does not mean that you would take away the shopfronts or reduce face-to-face services. We know that they are important to many people. But I think there is a waning of support for Canberra Connect.

Part 13 concerns land. Mrs Dunne will no doubt follow this up quite closely. There is the whole issue of the cost/benefit analysis. One of the government responses to the Estimate Committee states that the government will be setting up a process on major projects to ensure that proper analysis is done. We certainly look forward to the cost/benefit analysis so that, unlike previous Labor governments which lost enormous amounts of taxpayers' money in land development, this government can do it differently. I am sure we will get clarification as to how they will do that. It has not been forthcoming yet, but it will be interesting.

Part 14 is ACT Forests. It is good to see that the work we did in setting forests up for a sustainable future will be continued. Forests are an important industry. A large number of jobs in the private sector depend on good management of forests by the public sector. I think that union in the future can provide sustainability and good outcomes for the people of the ACT.

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