Page 3982 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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industry. We have a second network operating in the ACT, which is important for competition in the territory. He has deregulated the hire car industry and is looking at further means of providing the legislative solutions and responses to enable that industry to grow even stronger. It is important that we recognise that work. I know that those opposite, certainly in the area of hire cars, have been complimentary regarding the contribution the minister has made.
Let us look at a range of other areas. Again, there is a constant theme. It is interesting that the shadow Treasurer has left the chamber; he is embarrassed by the position that has been put by shadow ministers in opposing specific reforms that improve the efficiency of the delivery of government services. Mr Mulcahy goes on about this regularly—and he is right. It is important that governments continually look at how they deliver services to ensure that they are delivered more efficiently. That is what this minister has done in a number of areas, and he has had to take some difficult and courageous decisions in order to reform service delivery.
When you look across the range of areas where this minister has had to engage in difficult reform processes, you will see he has undertaken that with passion and commitment, and he has consulted extensively. He has fronted the public meetings he has needed to front to explain why certain reforms are necessary. He has invested significantly in backing up those reforms. In particular, we can look across the road at the new Civic library as an example of where reform of the library system was necessary, and he has invested in the quality of the system.
This minister has been able to deliver quality outcomes and he has been able to address inefficiencies in service delivery in order to reinvest money where it is needed—in front-end services. That has meant from time to time that he has had to take difficult decisions that were important for the structure of the territory’s budget and the ability to run government services efficiently and effectively, and which have also meant a strengthening of services in key areas where he has had portfolio responsibility. He has been prepared to make those difficult decisions in the face of the sort of petty opposition that you get from those opposite—the constant, short-term, contradictory policy positions that are put forward.
On one hand the shadow Treasurer likes to wax lyrical about his economic management skills and about how important it is for efficient delivery of services, but on the other hand what we see from each of the shadow ministers is an attempt to block the sorts of reforms that are necessary to ensure the efficient delivery of services. The Liberal Party is a party that can barely hang on to the title of Liberal Party—the conservative party in Australian politics. It is out of office in every parliament in Australia.
Ms MacDonald: The Tories.
MR BARR: The Tories—out of office in every parliament in Australia. The people of Australia have made pretty clear their verdict on the policy positions of those opposite. But they try to walk down both sides of the street. They are all hairy-chested, saying, “We must reform, we must cut back, we must cut our inefficiencies, we must focus services into the front end.” Every time this government has taken steps to do just that, to reform the delivery of services, to improve efficiency and to put money and resources into the front end, those opposite oppose it.
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