Page 2697 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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MR SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.
MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, I request another 10 minutes.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt is continuing on the question that the proposed expenditure be agreed to.
MR PRATT: Speaking of schools, the Stanhope government has overlooked, deliberately or otherwise, the prospect of school maintenance after the school closures. There is no funding allocated for this, despite the fact that some schools will close this December. At least that is my take-out from estimates. Under persistent questioning, the minister would not define the amount of funding added to his budget for the additional burden of maintaining and securing anywhere up to 39 schools. How peculiar. That could mean that nothing has been allocated in the 2006-07 budget for their upkeep. That is what the community thinks, despite the closures occurring this financial year.
If there is funding allocated, if there is contingency funding to beef up the TAMS budget to take care of this closed schools maintenance and security program, why are they being so coy? Why could they not tell me and my fellow members of the estimates committee what the bill is going to be to maintain and secure those closed schools? Is this one of the many signs that, in fact, the Stanhope government plans to sell these school sites straightaway, before any maintenance is required? Are they clearly not planning to do any maintenance at all? It is mighty peculiar. Let us ask the minister to spell out clearly in the next half hour how many extra dollars he has in his budget to maintain all those schools that they are going to close. What is the extra bag of gold, minister?
I turn now to urban infrastructure and rubbish. In this city we see that in many suburbs there is drainage, footpaths, lighting, et cetera, that are fast reaching their end of life. Again, we see that minimal funds from the best ever revenue windfalls have been banked to fund ongoing maintenance and replacement. In the good times very little was banked by this government to deal with what clearly is becoming a decades old problem with ageing infrastructure. Just like with roads, there is no outlined forward plan for urban infrastructure repairs and maintenance under this government, despite the obvious need for increased funding for the things the territory needs as it ages. Not only that, but for the spread, as the urban landscape grows with the building of new suburbs.
This government has an absolutely dismal record in keeping this place clean and tidy. One only has to look at the Sunday Times, which now runs the “Eyesore of the week” story. I am sure they have enough material to run an eyesore of the day under this government. Last Sunday’s eyesore of the week, an underpass on Erindale Drive between Farrer Ridge and Mount Wanniassa, takes first prize. This underpass is littered with an old abandoned car shells, rusty pushbikes, planks of wood, wires, string, filth and other unsightly rubbish. I seek leave to table a photograph of this wonderful monument to the Stanhope government.
Leave granted.
MR PRATT: I table the following paper:
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