Page 1584 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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would kick in there because I have actually asked the Prime Minister about that and he is interested. It would be a nice little incentive that could ensure we address climate change, not cost you a bomb and provide a lot of renewable, safe energy for the ACT. We might even be able to sell some back into the grid.
The Liberal Party understood the need for Canberra to substantially increase its water reserves, and three and a half years ago we called for a new dam to be constructed in the Naas Valley. That would increase the water storage available in Canberra. It is only in the last few months that the government has belatedly sought to address the issue and now seems to realise that we do need at least another large water storage facility.
That can be contrasted with Mr Rann in South Australia, who has revealed a plan to double the size of Adelaide’s water storage capacity in the Mount Lofty Ranges. He has said that he does not want to be forced to contemplate short-term solutions each time there is a period of extreme drought. He does not want to be caught flat-footed again. We have been to a very large extent. Water security is possible, Chief Minister. It starts with a sense of purpose and direction, closely followed by the capacity to make a decision and carry it through.
This is a government with little vision. It can always find taxpayers’ money for its indulgent, ideologically driven follies, like the Al Grassby statue, an arboretum being built during a drought, and the $128 million human rights prison for what is a small and reducing number of prisoners and for which we still do not have a cost-benefit analysis.
Former federal Labor PM, Paul Keating—I have quoted him twice today—once spoke of “a beautiful set of numbers”. He did not prepare people for the terrible recession of the early 1990s which drove thousands of businesses to the wall when interest rates went up over 18 per cent. Do not be fooled into thinking that this government is a responsible financial manager because it has achieved what is a slight surplus. That surplus has, despite windfall revenues over seven years, only been achieved by dint of taxing the people and the businesses of the ACT. The government have not reined in their wasteful spending. Instead, they have only raised taxes to meet spending, a point I think Mr Mulcahy made very well yesterday.
In keeping with my Orwellian theme of last year, I am reminded of a scene in George Orwell’s Animal Farm after the great rebellion had taken place and the truth about their new leaders has started to appear to some animals:
On Sunday mornings Squealer, holding down a long strip of paper with his trotter, would read out to them lists of figures proving that the production of every class of foodstuff had increased by two hundred per cent, three hundred per cent or five hundred per cent, as the case might be. The animals saw no reason to disbelieve him, especially as they could no longer remember very clearly what conditions had been like before the Rebellion. All the same, there were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.
The Chief Minister will attempt to make believe that the opposition leader should be delivering an alternative budget. I have given him a few ideas, but that is not true. I
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