Page 537 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 5 March 2008
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who made a great point of that. Yes, Kevin Rudd now lives in Canberra—and look what he is doing to Canberra. So work out what you would prefer. You have to put this in context. When the Liberal government came to office in 1996, Beazley’s black hole of a $10 billion deficit that was not revealed and the $100 billion worth of debt that the government owed—
Members interjecting—
Mr TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Gentleman): Order!
MR SMYTH: and, when Mr Rudd came to office, no debt, no net government debt, no government debt, and a $17 billion surplus. You tell me what you would prefer. If you want the litany of good things of the Howard government to continue, we can talk about the National Emergency Services Memorial, we can talk about the National Police Memorial, we can talk about the Anzac Parade upgrade. But I do not think we have to, because I think people in their hearts know that the Howard government, despite the fact that he did not live here, invested strongly in the ACT. In fact, despite the way this government are squeezing landholders and landowners and those who seek to buy land in the ACT, it is federal investment from the previous government in public service buildings, to make sure that our public servants are housed appropriately, that is feeding some of the billion-dollar surplus that this government has.
The Chief Minister has abandoned the field; he has just left the room. His amendment to the motion does not have a single mention of standing up for Canberra. There is not a single announcement that he can point to where he has stuck it to the Rudd federal government. You have got to admire the chief cheerleader for the Rudd government over there in the form of Mr Barr. Even Kate Lundy the senator said of Mr Barr’s interpretation of the cuts to the travelling program: “I think that is a very positive interpretation. I admire Andrew Barr greatly. You have got to try and draw the positives out of it.”
Well, it is a long bow that he has drawn and it is an appalling bow, because what Mr Barr fundamentally misses is that the travelling exhibitions of places like the War Memorial, the National Gallery, the National Library and Questacon go to places where people cannot normally get to Canberra. Because these things are withdrawn it does not mean that they will come here. They cannot afford to; they go to rural areas, they go to regional areas, they go to disadvantaged Aboriginal communities, they do it over the air. Questacon run a program where they often use the School of the Air to get to disadvantaged communities. Talk to your colleague Ms Porter; she knows where they are, she knows how far away they are, and she knows they do not get to come to Canberra—and that was the whole point of the outreach.
So if you, minister for education, and you, minister for tourism, think that disadvantaging—
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Smyth, direct your comments through the chair.
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