Page 1706 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 August 2007
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needs of our community? We will see, will we not? We will turn our attention to the finer details of that next week. Of course, my colleagues and in particular the shadow treasurer will be expanding on these.
As the member for Molonglo and as a committee member, I have not seen from the government and its advisers—and I am not convinced of it—any evidence that an integrated and structured management-directed economic plan exists for the next five years. It seems to be devoid of details for the outyears. I cannot see that members of the government have done anything significant to improve the quality of the business management process attached to the appropriation for financial year 2007-08. I am concerned what effect this failure to lead and manage will have on the reputation of this territory. Regardless of the interjections and protestations of those opposite, I say that the underlying ministerial government leadership to achieve the government outcomes is not evident. The key performance indicators that must be in place to measure the success of the budget are at best significantly flawed or, at worst, simply jargon to mask incompetence.
Lastly there is no evidence that this budget unveils a new vision for the ACT. It seems to reek of a patchwork of dated and failed programs that have been sliced and diced together as a crude attempt to portray this as this government’s economic direction. Disappointingly, when the government ran out of hot air it resorted to verbal bullying of committee members and visitors to the committee that any of our electors would regard as shameful schoolyard bully-boy tactics. Of course, it is only due to the government having the numbers that Mr Hargreaves has been let off today, as we have seen in that motion. I have made numerous attempts on the public record to inquire of ministers and advisers—
MR SPEAKER: Order! You should not reflect on a vote of the Assembly.
MRS BURKE: I withdraw the comments, Mr Speaker. I have made numerous attempts on the public record to inquire of ministers and advisers whether the committee could be informed of management actions, measures and plans that demonstrate this government’s credentials. At every turn ministers took the easier way out—bluster, denial, outrage, filibuster, and often there was not a plain and direct answer to be had. Not at all helpful! While I acknowledge those contributors who tried to support the estimates process, our dissenting report is a shame file on the capability of this government to act responsibly and honourably.
Our report says it all. We outline how the government failed to hear from ministers how they measure performance and manage it properly; failed to make budgets transparent—the further principles of good governance; failed to provide sufficient fiscal and program detail to permit any, or effective, form of scrutiny; and failed to address high-need and demand issues. Overall the estimates process proved that this government despises having to be held accountable for spending taxpayers’ money. That is the bottom line. We commend our additional report to the Assembly along with some 120 recommendations and hope that the government will give a good response to those and to the other recommendations made in the main body of the report.
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