Page 3976 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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I speculate a bit here. Why is it so? Why is it so, master? Well, butterfly, let me see if I can tell you. I think that Mr Pratt is suffering from a massive dose of relevance deprivation. People are starting to do what they have been doing to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for some time—laughing at him. They are just the butt of all jokes.
Mrs Burke: They laugh at you. You are the laughing stock of public housing.
Mr TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs Burke: That’s why you don’t have community services any more. And so it goes on.
MR HARGREAVES: So what has to happen—
Mr TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Minister, take a seat.
MR HARGREAVES: Certainly.
Mr TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mrs Burke, I have called you to order twice. Please refrain from interjecting.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. I think that, because he has got relevance deprivation, Mr Pratt has got to try and make out as though he knows something. He tries to damage my reputation for the sake of his own profile. I do not think it works. This sort of stuff only damages himself.
There are a number of these issues which are an invitation to people like me to crow about what we have done. I am very sorely tempted to do so. Our road funding—the road funding has been exponentially greater. When we first came to office, we found that the ageing asset sorely needed some funds, because those opposite, when in government, did nothing—nothing—about the ageing infrastructure. These days on a Saturday morning, the Canberra Times is littered with public notices saying that this street is closed, that street is closed and that street is closed because it is getting road pavement treatment.
The Gungahlin Drive extension is going fine. It is on time. Why did it cost an extra $20 million? There are two reasons. The first reason was that it was held up by the group that sits up at the top of O’Connor. That was part of it, and it cost us a lot of money in litigation. The other one—and this is the significant one—is that those opposite sponsored a different route. They kept it going for ages; they talked to their mates; they made the whole thing shift. What happened? The whole thing got delayed, and through the passage of time the rise and fall clauses ended up requiring a significant capital injection. I have had not one email complaining to me about Gungahlin Drive extension—not one email complaining to me about Glenloch interchange—for well over 12 months.
The very temporary deputy leader of the opposition says to me, “What about housing?” What about housing? When we came into government, a thousand units disappeared off the map. A thousand units disappeared off the map and it was left up
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