Page 2907 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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fire season we have no mobile data system in place. The government failed to consult with school communities about school closures. The closure of the Griffith library and the closure of the ACT shopfront are, again, failures by this government to consult with communities.
The GDE budget has tripled to $116 million and two years late, with four lanes going to two lanes. Road upgrades have been neglected, and I talk about Pialligo, Tharwa Drive and the Majura Parkway. The government has failed to maintain that five-year funding plan. Its management of the Tharwa bridge saga has been incompetent, from the analysis of the existing bridge and what plans might be put in place to replace it. The government has failed to upgrade footpaths, recreational parks, programs and the drainage systems, and I talk particularly about the nine-month delay to fix the Conder and the Chisholm drainage systems. The government has failed to complete the Fairbairn relocation of the emergency services agencies from Curtin to Fairbairn. This program is 18 months late, and a very, very expensive program it is with dead rent being paid.
For three bushfire seasons consecutively there has been a poor state of readiness. In December 2005, the failure to cut the grass along the urban edge directly resulted in the burning down of three houses at Yarralumla. In October 2006, on the fourth day of that fire season, 25 per cent of the frontline emergency services fleet was unserviceable. Now, in October 2007, on the fourth day, the first total fire ban day, we have seen a failure to man the fire towers. Incompetence, incompetence, incompetence!
There has been a long delay by this government in getting to grips with school violence. Frankly, a couple of classic cases have been swept under the carpet. The government wasted money on the Grassby statue and, of course, wasted $750,000 on artworks on the Gungahlin Drive extension. Again, waste, waste, waste!
I want to go back and pick up on four of these issues. The first is ambulance services. In November 2006, the transport workers union and individual ambulance officers were complaining to the opposition that officers were working excessive overtime and that they were very, very concerned that the ambulance service was simply unable to maintain the required seven fully trained crews 24 hours around the clock, seven days a week. They were saying they were struggling to get four to five crews on deck. This was in November 2006. Now, I know that the government have talked about taking measures to try and rectify that weakness, but in October 2007 we are still seeing levels of concern expressed that little has changed. This goes to the heart of incompetence.
The government’s decision to change the Emergency Services Agency from an independent authority back to an agency has been the most classic, the most stark example of incompetence. This was an incompetent decision by this government which caused unprecedented revulsion amongst the volunteers and permanent officers and resulted in an unprecedented strike by volunteers. They knew that to change the Emergency Services Authority from an independent entity back to an agency subsumed within a bureaucracy would mean that its ability to respond to protect the community would be severely impaired. That is why, in March 2007, we saw the
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