Page 1973 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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This budget, as a result of the poor financial management of the Labor government, has failed to provide for the critical infrastructure needs of the ACT. Perhaps the Chief Minister is confusing infrastructure priorities with legacy shopping. The government needs to distinguish between wants and needs. Do we need a busway? Did we need to spend the millions planning for a busway that was not going to happen, or did Simon Corbell simply want it? Do we need an arboretum, or does the Chief Minister want it? Do we need a prison, or does this Labor government want it?
The infrastructure plans of the Labor government in this budget include $800,000 for ovals in Harrison. That is quite welcome, but the question is: will they be allowed to die, come the next drought? There is $1.9 million for additional parking at the Canberra Hospital, and $90 million in school refurbishments. We cannot help wonder: there will be $90 million in school refurbishments but how much lost infrastructure will there be as a result of the closures of 39 schools in the ACT?
There is no sign in these boom times—with this $900 million of windfall revenue that we have had in the past few years—of some of the critical infrastructure needs being addressed. We have seen no sign of a health centre or police station in Gungahlin. The Gungahlin Drive extension is now finally getting going but, in the end, it is going to be a one-lane road. This is in the boom times. And we have seen no plan for critical infrastructure for the territory, no plan for the future of our roads infrastructure; so it will be the people of the territory who suffer in the long term.
Infrastructure is crucial to the future of Canberra, and this Labor government has not provided that in the good times. During strong revenue periods with surpluses created by previous governments, with a booming national economy and with ever-increasing windfalls from the GST, the government should have invested in the resources and facilities to be used by Canberrans in the future. This government has failed to do this. Instead of wasting millions, the government should have been investing in this critical infrastructure for the future.
The issue of school closures is one of the biggest things to come out of this budget. It can be summarised as follows: this budget is where the lie of the last election in relation to schools is going to be put in place. This government went to the last election and gained a majority on the back of a number of its promises. One of its promises, that came from the education minister at the time, was that no schools would close. Eighteen months later, 39 schools are to close. That is a disgrace.
Mr Mulcahy: She runs from the job.
MR SESELJA: Yes, she has left it to someone else. Poor old Mr Barr has to pick up the baton and run with the 39 school closures, when we were told 18 months ago none of this would happen. Look at some of the closures in my electorate. Look at the closure of Rivett primary school. This is one of the most disadvantaged areas in Canberra—parts of Rivett—and yet we are going to be closing the local school.
Many of the people of Rivett—most of them, about half of them I think—voted for the Labor Party at the last election. Partly they voted on the basis of the lie that their school would not close—that they could trust the Stanhope government not to close their
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