Page 3891 - Week 12 - Thursday, 23 November 2006

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The people of the ACT should not suffer for the overspending, but this is, in fact, what is happening. The people are suffering on two fronts. Firstly, services and facilities are being scrapped. Secondly, they are being scrapped arbitrarily without consultation by a government that believes it knows best. That is the abiding feature of the approach that is coming through more and more often. Surely there is a way forward in which the minister can take the advice of individuals or groups who actually use the Griffith library so that the issue can be solved without necessarily closing the library completely.

The government has begun to accumulate a notorious record of taking specialist advice from people who are otherwise unaccountable and who recommend drastic cuts to services or unfair boosts to taxes and charges. You only have to look at the last specialist that this government consulted for its 2006-07 budget. Michael Costello’s name will go down in territory history as the man who recommended the horror budget this year. Unfortunately, now Dr Veronica Lunn may well be the latest name to be added to the lengthening list of specialists who have given this government the analytical justification to inflict further pain on the Canberra community.

The public outcry—and the reason my colleagues and I have listed this item today—should show the government the danger of failing to consult. The people of Canberra will not accept continually being presented with government decisions as faits accompli. This is a community that is used to being consulted and expects to be consulted. It is not going to sit back and see its services ripped away in a high-handed fashion. It has happened with the school closures and now it is happening with the Griffith library.

Could the Griffith library, for example, have stayed open if funds had not been spent on the arboretum? Which facility does the government believe the people of Canberra want more? The government has taken reaction to this decision head-on and is suffering electoral damage. One would like to believe that the Chief Minister would have enough sense to step in here and fix up the mess that has been created by his ministerial colleague, even if it was at cabinet direction. I do not think they estimated the backlash they are now experiencing. Certainly, as far as the Liberal opposition is concerned, we are hearing the message loud and clear from the community, and the message is that this government has taken one step too far in terms of overriding constituent interest.

Motion (by Ms MacDonald) proposed:

That the question be now put.

The Assembly voted—

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