Page 2908 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
unprecedented sight of the RFS units parking their trucks out here in the front of this particular area and going on strike.
I want to go back to FireLink. The FireLink project was always questionable from the outset. There were concerns expressed by volunteers and by permanent officers, particularly communications officers that the FireLink project was simply going to be too complicated for the task. That is exactly how it has turned out. That project, we were told by the Emergency Services Authority at the time, had to be fast tracked. FireLink was selected as the mobile data system product of choice. We were told that there would not be a competitive tendering process because it was imperative that FireLink itself be fielded and put on the ground by the end of bushfire season 2004-05.
Well, that did not occur. Not only did it not occur then; it has never occurred. In the two and a half years since we have seen waste upon waste and neglect upon neglect regarding the analysis, the planning and the interaction of service of the mobile data system. What do we have today to show for a $3.2 million to $5 million budget blow-out? We have nothing. There is no mobile data system. There is no secondary communications system at this point to backup the primary radio network for the rural fire service and the SES.
The next item is Tharwa bridge. In 2006 there was an analysis by this government on what state the old Tharwa bridge was in. A decision was taken in October 2006 that the government would replace the old bridge with a new one. They told the community that. The community was so overwhelmed by the 12 month delay on that decision that they just did not know what the facts were. It is now emerging that there are very serious questions about the process that the government went through and the analysis. What do we have to show for it? We have seen an 18 month delay, the strangulation of Tharwa and an expensive concrete bridge which perhaps will be an iconic memorial to the Minister for Urban Services but which in no way will bring relief to the Tharwa community.
These 25 examples of incompetence and waste represent a litany of this government’s failure to efficiently manage the economy and to efficiently manage the budget that they have to service this community. This government stands condemned for those 25 examples of incompetence and waste. They have delivered nothing to this territory. They have simply wasted time.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11.50): It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to stand and talk about issues of management, particularly budget management, when those opposite, particularly the shadow Treasurer, seek to express grave concern.
I think the gravest area of concern for the shadow Treasurer must be in having to work with the shadow ministry. There is Mr Mulcahy valiantly trying to steer the opposition on a course of fiscal responsibility. You have the Liberal Party arguing time after time the need to efficiently deliver government services. Time after time the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the queen of cliches, talks about more chiefs and not enough Indians. There has been a series of claims made around management within departments and how the government seeks to deliver services in the territory.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .