Page 3491 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 August 2008
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really high-quality ads. The Labor Party should get some more of that poker machine money and fund some more ads, because they are wonderful ads.
Mr Gentleman: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: the Labor Party has not run any ads.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is the point of order?
MR SESELJA: I do not think that there is a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. As usual, there is no point of order.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Okay.
MR SESELJA: I think they actually have. If the Labor Party did not run those ads, that would be a fascinating point. I hope taxpayers did not have to fund that. It was clearly a party political ad that I heard on the radio. Mr Gentlemen’s interjection is an interesting one. We will look into that—as to whether government funding was used for those ads. That is what Mr Gentleman seems to be suggesting to us—that the Labor Party has not run any ads.
But we did hear those ads. They were telling us what a wonderful job they have been doing, and we have been hearing more of it today—about what a sensational job they are doing. It is a fantastic, quality way to go. If they could only tell the people a bit more about how good they are and if the opposition would just get out of the way of their message delivery, everything would be all right!
It is worth looking at the record of this government. Once again, Mr Gentleman referred to their great plans. Many of their great plans involve begging the commonwealth for money. Their light rail plan is about the commonwealth coming in and building a light rail system for Canberra. Their dam plan now seems to be tied to commonwealth funding—which is interesting because I did not think that that was the case. We have also heard other plans that they have put forward in other areas which require commonwealth funding, like the $100,000-a-year teacher salary plan that Mr Barr has put out there.
These are plans which they have no intention of delivering on or ability to deliver on. And the costings for these apparent plans do mount up. Take $100,000 a year for teachers. I imagine that will be quite a recurrent hit on the ACT budget. The light rail plan is an interesting one, isn’t it? They refuse to even commit money for a feasibility study for light rail, yet they are asking the commonwealth to come in and fund it. They will not even do the feasibility and figure out whether it would work, whether it would make sound financial sense and whether it could be delivered, but they are prepared for the commonwealth to come in and fund it. There is a schizophrenic attitude to light rail on the part of the ACT Labor Party. They are not committed to it.
We saw their fairly embarrassing announcement when it came to transport infrastructure, didn’t we—the comprehensive transport plan that was about getting a few more cyclists on buses? I think that was the main part of the plan. There was nothing in that plan—nothing of vision, nothing of substance. All we see now is this. We again hear Mr Gentleman saying that they are going to copy some of our plans. They have announced an infrastructure plan. Fantastic! Just a few months late!
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