Page 3980 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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Mr Hargreaves: Yes, so did I.
MR STEFANIAK: And you have to do that as a minister because that is part and parcel of your role. When we look at housing, Mrs Burke is often complaining about this: there is a real problem in relation to antisocial tenants. I know it is not easy, but the legislation has been changed to make it easier to evict people, and it is totally inappropriate for people who have absolutely no social skills, who make the lives of other tenants, be they in a complex or in freestanding houses, a misery, to remain in those houses. This is simply not being addressed by this government or by this minister. It is something the minister has not properly addressed.
Another item listed in the motion is shopfront closures. That has caused a huge problem for people. Most people in this town have a limited amount of time for lunch. They have to go, for example, to the motor registry at Dickson. The average time you have to wait there is about 30 minutes or so. If you are lucky, it might take about 20 minutes, but at lunchtime I am told that a 30 or 40-minute wait is quite common. People simply do not have the time for that. The shopfronts were convenient places for people to go to. They did not cost a lot to operate. They were closed without consultation, and it is another case of a bad decision by the minister—it is his responsibility—and by the government.
Again, it was done in the context of the 2006-07 budget—the horror budget we supposedly had to have, and which was completely unnecessary, especially as the government has an extra windfall in the forthcoming year of over $200 million. The closures saved a pittance of money and it was a very bad priority for the government and the minister, having regard to the inconvenience caused to the Canberra community. It was a bad decision by the minister. It was a decision that impacted on a huge number of people. If he had consulted people, I would hope he would not have come up with that.
There is a litany here—a whole range of issues which Mr Pratt has rightfully listed and which indicate that the Assembly would be quite justified in lacking confidence in the ability of this minister to do his job. Being a minister is a difficult and arduous role, but you do need to talk to people and get your decisions right. You cannot continue to make bad decisions and not expect to have them put before the Assembly for scrutiny.
You cannot let something like the Tharwa bridge drift on for 400-plus days, until finally some proper action is taken. You cannot let projects blow out to double the cost and still cause problems, such as the GDE. With things like the Griffith library, you might think you know what people think about it, but at least you should ask them. You never know; when you ask them, they might come up with some very good solutions that you and your department had not thought of. Try doing that: talk to people. There are a lot of intelligent people in Canberra who could come up with some very good solutions. They know that governments often have to struggle with money. You can never do everything for everyone, but at least if you talk to people, even if you make a decision, people will understand it a bit better than when you just arbitrarily make all these arrogant decisions. For that reason, you deserve to go. (Time expired.)
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