Page 114 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
At the bottom of page 2 the minister goes on to say, “Our $1.4 billion infrastructure program announced in this year’s budget will continue, largely financed by cash holdings.” That may be true, but you have to spend it. You have only to go to the record of this government since they came into office to see that they do not deliver on capital works. It is well and good to have a $1.4 billion infrastructure program that you have no intention of delivering.
We see urgent crisis talks. If the economy is so strong, if this government had created the buffer, if this government were ready for the downturn, why are we having urgent crisis talks with the business community? Because they were not prepared; they have been caught out. You have only to read the statements from the Chief Minister in late August. On 28 August the Chief Minister said:
… the ACT is experiencing a period of sustained economic growth and prosperity.
If we have that period of sustained economic growth and prosperity, why are we having urgent crisis talks and roundtables? Then on 12 September the Chief Minister said on WIN News, “The pre-budget update will show a slight easing in the budgetary position, but it will be, I think, very minor and essentially insignificant.” On 10 September the Chief Minister said on 2CC that the ACT economy was not slowing as much as other parts of Australia. He is caught out. From 28 August until now, 9 December, the Chief Minister has been caught out. The government say that they can deliver capital works. But their record is that they cannot deliver capital works. In their first year in office the underspend was 33 per cent, in their second year 37 per cent, in their third year 36 per cent, in their fourth year 48 per cent, in their fifth year 48 per cent and in their sixth year in office 38 per cent.
This government does not deliver its infrastructure program. It is easy to make promises and say that it has got a program; that is the easy bit. But this government simply does not deliver. The minister went on to say, “We will deliver on high quality infrastructure for the people of Canberra.” The Gungahlin Drive extension? That is high quality—half a road, more than double the price, and by the time it is finished it will cost somewhere between $200 million and $250 million. That is good budgeting? That is delivering high quality infrastructure? It is like the busway, where almost $5 million was spent on a planning study for a busway that will never be built. Mr Hargreaves told us it would be “over his dead body”: “it ain’t going ahead.” We had the fallout in cabinet from that.
The prison: they were going to deliver the prison on time, on budget. We had yet again another pre-election stunt: an opening of a prison with no prisoners. It will not have prisoners for another two or three months, and we see in Appropriation Bill No 2 tabled today more than $2 million to fund the keeping of ACT prisoners in New South Wales—because this government cannot deliver on its capital works program, and that is the problem for this community.
The minister went on to say, “We will be affected by decreases in revenue.” Shock, surprise, horror! It is what we have been saying for years. It is what groups like the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .