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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3684 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

required? Should it have been 14? Should it have been 40? Should there have been one or two for every one of the fire brigade stations, plus additional units for the volunteer brigade fire stations? This was not tested. The interplay at the government table was quite interesting. The acting head of the fire brigade said that he thought it was possibly the start of a process. If people go to the Estimates Committee report, they will see his words there. But the minister said, "Oh, no, it is not the start of a process; that is all we are getting."But, again, we do not know how the government came to this conclusion because it could not tell us. Was it the start of a project? The fire brigade said that they hoped it was. But the minister said that no, it was not. So even from the government and government officials there was doubt about what this project meant.

Yesterday there was a question about the community fire units. To his credit, Mr Hargreaves, with a great deal of passion, wanted one at Gordon, down at the bottom end of the fine electorate of Brindabella. An assessment was done and a trial started. There is additional funding in the Appropriation Bill to keep the trial ongoing. But how were the suburbs picked? Which are the suburbs most at risk? Which are the suburbs that are most vulnerable? The explanations were, "Well, it's a trial. We're going to put eight up, but it's a trial."I have no doubt that Mr Hargreaves will have more to say on this. A case could be made for a huge number of suburbs to have a community fire unit, and I think the answer we were given was less than satisfactory.

The Appropriation Bill also provides money to purchase land around the airport. The impression that we got from the builder was that the land was ready to be purchased. During questioning at the Estimates Committee hearing, some blocks were named that the government was keen to get-blocks to the north-east of the airport that, according to the head of the Chief Minister's Department, could be a prison site. However, when we spoke to the planning minister, he said that the government were after all of the blocks but then said that he would leave it to the minister in charge of corrections to answer which blocks he was really interested in. It is interesting that a number has been decided by officials and is now in writing so that everybody will be aware of it. But I am not sure that it is the right number. What happens now? Does the government go to the Treasurer's Advance for additional money? Does it come back for a third appropriation when Defence jacks the price up? The federal departments are not well known for being kind to the ACT.

We then have the issue of the Hotel Kurrajong. It is important that we keep across what is happening with the Hotel Kurrajong and that we make sure that, if we do purchase it, we get good value for it. Then what will be done with it? Will it be another white elephant? Will it remain the International Hotel School? Will it be used for another purpose? It seems that negotiations with the Commonwealth are yet to be finalised. So will the $350,000 that the government has asked for be enough? Perhaps we should have had more detail before we started putting figures into a hard budget.

I spoke on Tuesday again about the gift to Unions ACT without any service level contract or agreement. It is very important for people to be able to see that their money is spent well and accounted for, not just given away. The lack of answers from the minister about accountability is unfortunate and raises some concerns. I am sure that in about a year's time the minister will come back and tell us how well the money has been spent and whether or not the program will be ongoing. But she will need to justify that expenditure and perhaps should look at a different process of issuing money. We all have

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