Page 1971 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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the ACT’s coffers of funds for other roads. The GDE farce has been a classic example of the government’s failure to manage any sizeable projects.
How about the five-year funding plan for roads? We have been looking for the new five-year capital works plan for roads that is so desperately needed to continue ongoing works. This is another classic example of the failure of the Stanhope government to bank revenues in the good times to ensure funding for routine infrastructure maintenance and modest upgrades. They have been blinded by white elephant project spending; that is why.
In many suburbs of this city drainage, footpaths, lighting, et cetera are fast reaching their end of life but, again, minimal funds have been banked from the best ever revenue windfalls to fund ongoing maintenance and replacement. There is a major question over the ability of this government and this community to make sure that those long outstanding maintenance issues with infrastructure can be met.
I turn to front-line capability. In the Department of Territory and Municipal Services we will see the continued erosion of front-line staff. There are going to be sweeping job cuts throughout the public sector. I hope that it will not occur, but it is quite likely that the department will suffer front-line position losses which will translate to a decrease in services essential to the community. We cannot afford to cut front-line position in territory and municipal services. As it is, our rangers do not have the resources to catch graffiti vandals; hence, the ongoing need to foot expensive cleaning bills. This is a false economy that is driven, I guess, by an ideological fear of arresting young offenders, not to mention a reduction in staff numbers in the department.
The dedication of $500,000 to the restoration of 40 hectares of drought-affected ovals in the ACT is welcome and commendable, but this amount will in no way go to restoring all the ovals that this government let go to ruin because they failed to implement the water saving irrigation systems that were recommended to them in the early days of the drought. I look forward to hearing whether the government have a recycling program that they might implement with grey water and other resources to supplement expenditure that they are now providing for in the budget to address the ovals problem. This is another case of the government’s waste and mismanagement.
There is no mention of shopping centre upgrades that I can see in any of the programs in this budget. That is ridiculous as we know that there are many urban shopping centres which are badly crying out for upgrades. If the government cannot invest in the presentation of these local shopping centres, they will continue to be a haven for vandals. If the government cannot respect and attempt to present well-turned-out urban infrastructure, how does the government expect others to respect and care for these places?
The introduction of pay parking at our hospitals after 1 July is an abomination. Although a range of exemptions have been announced, some categories of people, such as medical students, will be unfairly targeted.
Let’s look at my own area, Brindabella. Indiscriminate school closures will add to the financial and emotional burden of many families in Brindabella. Communities will suffer from a lack of cohesiveness and the sense of community will diminish over time as
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