Page 2906 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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In any discussion on competence, we should go to the announcements that the Liberal Party have made in the last five days. The Liberal Party has previously promised to abolish the fire levy. The Liberal Party intend on Wednesday to seek to abolish the utilities tax. The Liberal Party last week promised an additional $54 million in beds. It adds up to $91 million. That is in the order of $40 million more than the anticipated budgeted surplus for the next financial year.
Without going to all the other promises that they have made in relation to reopening closed schools, in the space of one week the Liberal Party has promised to reinstitute a whole range of tourism funding. They say, “We will do this and we will do that.” Forget about the other $150 million worth of promises that have been made for the last 18 months. In the last seven days, the Liberal Party have promised a $91 million hit on the bottom line, forcing us to a $40 million deficit in their first year in government after they win the next election. They talk about competence. (Time expired.)
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (11.40): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to make my contribution to this motion expressing grave concern by listing a number of examples. But before I do that, I take the point that the Chief Minister has made about the pair. That was clearly an oversight. We regret that. But be that as it may, Chief Minister, your incompetence and that of your government overrides any concerns or niceties on the issue. What I am going to do right now is quickly summarise 25 classic examples of this government’s incompetence. I will start with health.
Members interjecting—
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Gentleman): Order, Mr Pratt! Before you summarise those, I ask members on both sides to cease conversation so that we can hear your statement.
MR PRATT: That is very kind of you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Thank you for chewing up that time. The first point, of course, is health.
Mr Hargreaves: I raise a point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. That is a clear discourtesy to the chair. He should withdraw that.
MR PRATT: I do withdraw that, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Thank you, Mr Hargreaves, for pointing it out.
We have already discussed health and, quite sadly, the Osterberg case. His death in the waiting room is a classic illustration of overload of the system, an overload which tragically goes back to the heart of this government’s incompetence. The ambulance service has failed to maintain full crews 24 hours, seven days a week. I will come back to that.
The independence of the ESA has been destroyed as a result of the reorganisation. Its responsiveness has now been mitigated, with a consequent revulsion on the part of the volunteers. The $3.2 million to $5 million FireLink project is three years late and this
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