Page 1618 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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cheap, simplistic political argument. This argument says you can never ever cut taxes or reform a tax system. I do not accept this. We think taxes should be at a reasonable level. Governments ought to consider the effects of their taxes on consumer behaviour and on the broader economy. This government has ignored those impacts when it decided its tax settings in the property sector.
Planning for public transport infrastructure and public transport generally has been deplorable. There is no greater example of the failings of this government than the Civic to Belconnen busway—$5 million dollars spent on a project that was ill conceived and would only have shaved three minutes off a bus trip.
Mr Corbell interjecting—
MR SESELJA: The timing of the interjections is interesting. The first minister for the busway, the man with the plan to spend $115 million to save three minutes on the journey between Belconnen and Civic, was Simon Corbell. That was Simon Corbell’s plan. He interjects now and defends the wasting of millions of dollars on planning for a project that everyone knew was never going to go ahead. Add to this the hatchet job done to ACTION in 2006-2007 and the government simply has no credible record on public transport. Labor has failed to competently manage the operations and failed to plan for the future.
We need to plan now for a future public transport system. Development should be intensified along Northbourne Avenue, other major road corridors and town centres, instead of scattering multi-unit developments into the heart of our suburbs. We should plan now to put Canberra in a position in the future where it can truly have a sustainable and efficient public transport system. Let us acknowledge the terrible cut-down and underutilised state of our public transport system. Let us open up a debate about the future of public transport and really put this issue on the agenda.
The Canberra Liberals believe in getting out in front of problems. Labor’s approach is to neglect things and then do something reactive at the last minute. I have announced a policy called infrastructure Canberra which will establish an infrastructure plan. It will also establish an infrastructure commissioner to ensure that capital works needs are carefully assessed and put in a priority order. This independent commissioner will be unique in Australia. The infrastructure commissioner will be able to publish advice to government; it will be transparent, and governments will ignore this advice at their peril.
We will beef up scrutiny of government by establishing a public works committee so that for the first time there is rigorous scrutiny of government implementation and performance. Haven’t we seen the record of this government in delivering its infrastructure! This kind of planned approach will ensure that we do not see the kind of infrastructure stuff-ups that Labor has presided over. The people of Canberra are sick of the deferral of projects, blow-outs of budgets and cancellation and downsizing of projects. The new money promised by Labor to infrastructure in this budget is a belated response to Liberal criticism over many years. But Labor will continue the same old uncoordinated, unscrutinised approach to managing capital works.
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