Page 3820 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
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has taken place! After the $75,000 party has been held, the government then comes to this place and says, “Now we want you to approve it.” Of course what it says is that they are using the Assembly as a rubber stamp. This is lip service by the government, coming to this place and saying, “Let us spend the money. We do not have approval of the elected representatives. We will do it anyway and we will use our numbers to rush it through and backdate it effectively.”
Fortunately, it does appear that the government will relegate this wasteful and ill-considered public holiday to the dustbin of failed ACT government policies. Minister Barr was very keen to talk about the dustbin this morning. This one is going there too, apparently. Not yet willing to eat humble pie on the issue, the government is trying to set themselves up for an honourable retreat, claiming that the holiday was only necessary as a result of Work Choices and now, thank goodness, they are able to get rid of it. The fact is that they are embarrassed, but the truth is that this was always a poor policy; it is a policy which led to widespread business shutdowns, losses in productivity and a mass exodus of workers from Canberra, not only for the day itself but for the preceding work day and the preceding weekend.
I am sure the Chief Minister—and he would never admit it publicly—heard many complaints from people in business who said what a stupid idea this was. I have got hold of the letters under FOI. Not one single business organisation! Even people such as Prime Television wrote to them and told them it was a dumb idea. I think he now realises it was a dumb idea.
Andrew is trying to ingratiate himself with unions. Mr Barr is not really part of the union movement; he is very uncomfortable in that environment; but he thought, “Here is a giveaway. I will try to win myself some votes on the floor of the Labor Party conference. I will try to make myself look like a workers’ representative.” The Chief Minister is sitting there, holding his head, saying, “What a stupid idea this was for the territory. All we have done is cost a lot of people a lot of money; we have ruined the camaraderie in offices; we have ruined the office sweeps.”
People had a good time on Melbourne Cup day, but Mr Barr cannot relate to that. He went and took a decision that is of course now deemed as fairly stupid, and the government is looking to dig their way out of it.
Another item of continuing concern to the opposition is the arbitrary allocation of money to the arts portfolio under the percent for art scheme. Because of an increase in capital expending under the bill, the percent for art scheme is automatically allocated additional money, one per cent of new capital works. The Chief Minister conceded in estimates hearings before the public accounts committee—
Mr Stanhope: The only shadow arts minister in the world who does not want arts funding.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR MULCAHY: The Chief Minister is the only arts minister in the world who wants to cut spending on the arts. The fact is that I actually believe in funding arts as
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