Page 2254 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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like the Golden Gate Bridge in America? Not likely. Will it be like the Brooklyn Bridge that we can sell time and time and time again, like property, just to balance the books? I do not think so.
Perhaps it will be something modern and functional and elegant like the Anzac Bridge in Sydney. But that is probably not what the Chief Minister had in mind when he was building this bridge to the—what did he call it?—more dynamic and attractive society. Perhaps it is just a basic old army baby bridge, something functional to get you across the gap. Perhaps it is a pontoon bridge or a low-level crossing.
It is probably none of those. It is certainly not the parlour bridge. It is probably more like the rickety old rope bridge that appeared in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Do you remember that bridge, Mr Speaker? The valiant Indiana Jones and the evil Mola Ram fight on the bridge. Mola Ram attempts to rip out Indiana Jones’s heart and the bridge collapses. That is the sort of bridge Jon Stanhope is building. It is a bridge too far. It is a bridge he is not game to go for because he does not have a commitment to business. Business is his favourite whipping boy. When they call him to task, he is more interested in beating them up.
So there we have it. The Chief Minister has been in the Assembly for nine years. On his first day here, in his first speech he said, “I am going to broaden the economic base of the ACT.” We have seen nine years of inactivity. Do not hold your breath.
The economic white paper talks about the need to diversify the ACT economy. This used to be the most pro-business jurisdiction in the country. But after six years of the Stanhope government, we have seen dramatic cuts to Business ACT, to staff, expertise and programs and to tourism, sport and rec. (Second speaking period taken.)
We have also seen many recent instances of Mr Stanhope lamenting the narrow economic base of the ACT. We have seen his silly comments about the mines, but we have not seen any action. In fact, this government is now rapidly backing away from their economic white paper. There is no commitment to building this bridge to the dynamic and attractive society that Ted Quinlan wanted but Jon Stanhope has no commitment to.
What has the Stanhope government done to strengthen and expand the private sector in the ACT? Absolutely nothing! I asked the Chief Minister some questions about this in the estimates hearings. Some were taken on notice. What did I receive? I certainly did not receive any information that convinces me that the economic white paper will be implemented.
When you go through the documents and you look at the things that this Chief Minister has promised, the backing away is quite extraordinary. They could not tell me whether the public sector or private sector had grown or decreased. There are some numbers that purport to be an indication of how it is going, but they have got no idea. Without knowledge of where the market is going, you cannot plan for the future.
Mr Stefaniak read some comments by Craig Sloan, who said that the government, in its 2003 economic white paper, committed to a sustainable economy based on a
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