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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4161 ..

confidence of business to have a government that has in place these sorts of draconian laws?

I turn to the bushfires. It is the duty of the government and its head, the Chief Minister, to do the best they possibly can to protect the ACT community. There has been information, anecdotal and otherwise, and evidence building since 19 January 2003 that this Chief Minister ineptly and incompetently led his government through 2002 and then through the bushfire emergency of January 2003. The government failed to accept responsibility and take action and has been misleading the community on the facts as to what happened.

The failure of the government, which goes to the heart of both good governance and the government’s duty of care to the community and its emergency personnel, was covered up by arrogant obfuscation which led ultimately to misleading the Assembly and the community about what did happen. Therefore, we have lost 18 months or more of learning concerning the lessons that should have been provided to this community out of the January 2003 disaster.

Eighteen months have been lost because of the failure of this government to come clean with the community and to make sure that all the lessons that should have been learned were learned and then applied quickly. Yes, this year we are seeing strides being taken with the Emergency Services Authority, and I commend the government for doing so, but why has it taken so long? There are still major questions about communications, there are still major questions about whether we have enough community fire units, and there are still major questions about warning systems and ensuring that vulnerable suburbs are well informed. This government has been responsible for a litany of failures with major functions and it should be condemned for that.

MRS BURKE (4.08): Mr Speaker, the motion that has been placed on the notice paper for debate today is a serious motion in that it reflects what the Canberra community has not enjoyed over the term of this government and it is important to place on the public record a number of points. I acknowledge that money has been injected into various areas, and I will talk about that a little later, but the injection of money does not always solve a problem. Whilst it helps and goes a long way towards doing so, if the injection of money is without direction or leadership it does not end up doing really much at all at the end of the day.

Firstly, I want to touch on housing. The many people who call my office—people who own their own homes and people who are public housing tenants—all have one common thing to say, that is, that this government has failed the Canberra community in regard to its promise and commitment on public housing. The government may well say that it has pumped $X million into housing, but what do we have to show for it? I am not the only one asking that. It is being said by people in the broader community that the government is spending more and getting less.

Mr Wood: You make things up.

MRS BURKE: Mr Wood interjects that I make things up. Is Mr Wood saying that tenants ring my office and tell me a pack of lies? He must be, which is a bit of shame. I did not think that Mr Wood would be saying or intimating things like that.

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