Page 103 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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We see the reference to the supplementary appropriation bill, which establishes the most urgent new spending priorities. But, of course, we see a continuation, with the appropriation bill, of the government’s failure to be accountable: $35 million of taxpayers’ money and they do not want any scrutiny of that—in and out of the Assembly in two days. We see that not much has changed in the way that this government operates. They have been re-elected with a reduced margin, without a majority, and yet in many ways they still continue to act like they have one. We will continue to work with the Greens to ensure that that is not the case.
We believe that this bill does deserve to be scrutinised, and scrutinised properly, albeit quickly. We will be happy to make that happen so that it can be done in a timely manner. We have not seen any indication from the government that they would submit to that request.
The Chief Minister mentions high-level industry and community roundtables, which signal the government’s number one priority in the medium term of protecting our local economy. There are a couple of points on that. Firstly, a roundtable does not signal anything other than that you have brought people together and sat down and chatted. That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but it does not actually mean that there are any actions coming from that. So we will wait to see whether there are any concrete results that do serve to protect the ACT economy in the coming years.
The other thing that needs to be pointed out is that it seems this government only acts when there is a crisis. We wait until there is a global economic downturn—a global economic downturn which, certainly for the last couple of months, everyone has seen evolving. We wait until that takes on very serious proportions before we sit down properly with the business community and look at ways of fixing it. It was interesting that one of the things that came from one of these roundtables was that they should cut red tape in planning. How many times have we heard that? How many times have we heard this government pledge to cut red tape in planning? We have been calling for it, we have been begging for it, the industry has been begging for it and, even with the changes in the system, we saw things get worse rather than better in many cases.
So there is an amount of weasel words there when they talk about cutting red tape in the planning system, because that is what they have been saying for many years. We have seen very little evidence of any success in achieving those cuts to make things more efficient so that we can improve our economy and so that we can have a more vibrant construction industry and a more vibrant economy.
It is worth reflecting on the statement from the Chief Minister that “the government will continue to improve student outcomes and teacher quality, reduce average class sizes in all remaining years of schooling and deliver the best facilities for students and teachers”. I seem to recall the Chief Minister saying that this was a wasteful policy, and that the policy of reducing class sizes post year 3 was a policy that simply could not be afforded. In fact, the education minister stood in this place and said that not only couldn’t we afford it, not only did it cost $90 million, but that it was bad policy and that reducing class sizes in the later years actually made no difference.
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