Page 2957 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 August 2008
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looks on the faces of people at Tharwa, Cook, Flynn, Isabella Plains and Chifley. I did not see too many Labor members at the consultation on what to do with the land that is left over. Closing 23 schools in such an arbitrary way is not investing in a better city and a stronger community.
But it goes on. There is Billabong Corporation and an Indigenous community that are still trying to come to grips with their future because they were left without a licence by this government—left without a licence. They were looking after some of the most disadvantaged people in this city but they were left without a licence because the government did not deliver.
There is network 06 and network 08 in ACTION. I am sure that Mr Pratt will speak about the debacle that they were. They were certainly building a better city and a stronger community! There is the promised youth mental health facility, Mr Corbell—promised in the 2005 budget, not delivered in 2007-08. It should have opened this year and we have not even seen a plan yet. That is a good investment! That is building a better city! That is building a stronger community!
Calvary aged care took five years. Constitution Avenue—we are not going to see the upgrade of Constitution Avenue now, because this government cannot stand up to the federal Labor government. And there is the National Convention Centre. As tourism minister and Treasurer, Mr Quinlan said in December 2001, “You will have the answer on a convention centre next year.” Normally “next year” would mean December 2002; maybe we will get an answer by December 2008.
And of course there is the busway. Depending on whose body ends up in the political graveyard—whether it is Mr Corbell or Mr Hargreaves—it will or will not be built in somebody’s lifetime. The problem is that the government has spent an enormous amount of taxpayers’ money but has delivered nothing in regard to the busway.
There is the standing joke of the week that they are already talking about at the Gungahlin shopping centre. Will the Gungahlin pool have two, four or eight lanes? Will it be an Olympic wide pool? Will it be half a pool? Will it be a quarter of a pool? Will it be a 25-metre pool? On the basis of what the government delivered when it said that it was going to build Gungahlin Drive on time and on budget, we can expect that the 50-metre Olympic pool—which I assume is meant to be going into some sort of facility under the Labor government if it is re-elected—will actually be a 25-metre pool that costs twice as much. That is the standard of the delivery and the standard of investment that this government has made in things like that. They are already joking about the Chief Minister and his delivery of projects.
There they are, the people of Gungahlin, living at the end of a two-lane road—a two-lane road that has cost more than double what it was projected to cost. When it is a four-lane road, it will probably cost four times what it was projected to cost initially. They still sit there at the end of two lanes waiting. Depending on who you talk to and what time of the day it is for the government, it is going to happen between zero and five years, five and 10 years, zero and four years or in 4½ years. Yesterday we heard that it was in the budget; today we heard that it was made after the budget. We have a Chief Minister who is all over the place on Gungahlin Drive, and at the end of that
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