Page 2241 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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During estimates, the Chief Minister said that the government’s priorities were reflected in the budget. Unfortunately, too many of their priorities are wrong priorities. We have already talked about the per cent for arts scheme, where one per cent of the government’s capital works budget is set aside for artworks. In the budget there is $845,000 set aside in this financial year for artwork, with $745,000 set aside in the next year. During the estimates process, an official said that the figures in the outyears were a guesstimate and that it would change according to the capital works budget.
The Chief Minister stated during estimates that the Woden town centre would be a priority. In fact, the allocation for this year will be used on a so-called “iconic gateway” to Canberra. This proposal has inspired a great deal of scepticism in the community. Who can forget Sharpe’s cartoon in the Canberra Times of Mr Stanhope as the “Colossus of Canberra”? Dr Foskey even made what I assume was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion of building a giant earless dragon.
As well, this government is wasting millions more on public artworks such as the amazing Al Grassby statue and $750,000 on public art on the Gungahlin Drive extension. I actually thought that was a rock moved out of the way by some workers, but apparently it is public art, so there you go.
Mr Barr: It could have been both, Bill.
MR STEFANIAK: Indeed, Mr Barr. At a time when our public hospitals are struggling to obtain basic equipment, this government is wasting millions on public art. Mr Stanhope raves on about Mr Humphries. As Mr Mulcahy indicated, the figure was 0.25 per cent of capital works for public art. I do not know how long that one lasted, but it was very different from the figure of one per cent. Talking about wrong priorities, another wrong priority is money spent by the government on promoting itself. In 2001, the Chief Minister promised:
There will be no hoopla, no circuses, in a Stanhope Labor Government. There will be no gloss, there will be no beating of the breast.
That promise has hardly been kept. In this budget, the communications budget of the Chief Minister’s Department is $3.5 million this year, increasing by $300,000. There has been a great deal of money wasted on government communications in recent years. For example, the government spent $117,000 on glossy TV and newspaper ads for this budget. The estimates committee report states:
The Committee was critical of the spending of $117,000 on an advertising campaign to promote the budget. The Committee considers that such expenditure items should be transparent and fully accountable to the ACT Legislative Assembly.
Mrs Burke and I recommended that the government not spend money on promoting any legislation until it has been passed by the Assembly. The advertisements contained little information and were, in effect, political advertisements for the Labor Party. If they want to advertise, that is fine, but they should pay for it themselves out of their own money rather than using public money.
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