Page 956 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007
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Take the politics out of it for a second. We did not reach full accreditation because I am in charge of the system. It is not about me being in charge of the system. It is the staff who work in ACT Health who delivered it—that is why we have got it—and those staff should be congratulated. And the system itself is better off for having it.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Governance
Discussion of matter of public importance
MR SPEAKER: I have received letters from Mrs Burke, Dr Foskey, Mr Gentleman, Ms MacDonald, Mr Mulcahy, Ms Porter, Mr Pratt, Mr Seselja, Mr Stefaniak and Mr Smyth proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with standing order 79 I have determined that the matter proposed by Mr Seselja be submitted to the Assembly, namely:
Governance in the ACT government and public sector.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (4.26): I am amazed that, with those odds, I got up. The opposition, particularly this week and generally for some time, has been highlighting the failure of this government to be open and honest with the community. Today I will highlight the failure of this government to be responsible in the expenditure of public money and its failure to properly govern for the good of all Canberrans.
The list of cost blow-outs and failed projects is long. We have seen the blow-out in the costs and timing of the GDE. We have seen the increasingly important issue of housing affordability, which this government is just turning its mind to. We have seen the failure of the LDA, which now thankfully is being scaled back in many ways. We have seen the mismanagement of our health system, the schools debacle with over 20 schools to be closed, the busway, the ACT prison, the arboretum, and the list goes on.
I want to speak in particular—and I know that some of my colleagues will be speaking about this as well—about some of the areas primarily in my portfolios. I will start with the Land Development Agency. Recently, changes were announced to the Land Development Agency. But the Land Development Agency, particularly in the form in which it has been operating for the past few years, has really been a failed experiment. The Chief Minister has tacitly admitted that with his moves to scale back its operations—to take away the excusive ability of the LDA to develop land in this territory.
We certainly welcome the changes, but it is an acknowledgment that the LDA has not achieved the objectives that it was set up to achieve. It has not achieved the positive results for the people of Canberra that were promised by the planning minister when it was set up some years ago. That has been acknowledged now. It is certainly something that I have been arguing for some time. The Land Development Agency is a classic example of Labor largesse. It is a government entity playing private sector operator.
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