Page 3829 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
There have been some significant amounts of money coming into the territory as a result of the government not being able to forecast that property revenue. Despite that, there is not a shred of tax relief for the long-suffering people of Canberra—who have filled the government’s coffers thanks to the increased taxes we had to have because last year we were in such dire straits.
I welcome the recommendations on page 5 of the committee’s report. The first is:
… that the ACT Government undertake systematic analysis of major budget expenditure as a basis for supporting expenditure in future appropriation bill documentation.
The committee also recommended:
… that the ACT Government give consideration to saving a portion of future windfall revenue—
and guess what: I think you will probably get a bit more—
for a future contingencies fund and/or tax reform and report to the Legislative Assembly on this consideration at the time of the next Appropriation Bill.
I certainly hope you do that. It is a very sensible recommendation and something that you need to take on board.
Thankfully, in this second appropriation bill at least there is some recognition of the people of Canberra who have carried the burden of closed schools. Guess what, guys: you do not save too much by closing a school—if you have not worked that one out already. There were closed shopfronts and libraries. There were savage cuts to bus services: there is now an attempt to rectify the absolute disaster that you put in place in November last year. I will say a little bit more on that later, and Mr Pratt will certainly elaborate.
There is a failed hospital system. There are water restrictions that we may never have needed to the same extent if sensible policies had been put in place—indeed, if sensible restrictions had been carried forward when, in 2005, we had some reasonable rain. And some of the emergency services reforms are incredibly problematic, to say the least.
I mentioned bus timetables. The government has finally recognised that the service needs improvement. There is some funding for some additional measures as well. I hope that your consultation process is a fair dinkum one. Even though you have made some improvements, there are some bus services in Belconnen, for example, and Tuggeranong which will cause real problems if you axe them, especially the 30 and the 47 service in Kaleen and Giralang. That is causing a lot of angst for constituents in my electorate, and my colleagues Mr Smyth and Mr Pratt have indicated that they have caused some concerns in their electorate as well.
My colleague Mr Mulcahy has already referred to the Beijing Olympics torch relay. That will be a great event. But even the Chief Minister was surprised at the cost. Good
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .