Page 590 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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The danger we see, therefore, is that we will fail to capitalise on the significant funding that the plan provides if proper planning and resourcing are not built into the process.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10:31: Mr Speaker, Ms Hunter started by saying that we have to trust the Labor Party to deliver this. But to trust the Labor Party, you have to look at their capability to deliver this. You have only to go back over the last seven years to realise that they cannot deliver it. For the information of the new members, the former Liberal government used to table quarterly updates on capital works projects and their progress. The Labor Party, in their spirit of honesty, openness and accountability, stopped doing that. I now FOI them every quarter so that I can know where the capital works projects are. You have to ask why a government that was proud of their record of delivery of capital works would hide the progress and the updates that should be available to the community.
Just the other day I got the latest FOI, so that I can now compare the June quarter for 2007-08 with the June quarter for 2006-07. I will just go to one project in this list, because I drive past it every morning on the Monaro Highway. In the 2006-07 capital works, there is Roads to Recovery, which I think was federally funded. Roads to Recovery was a former federal program cut by the Rudd government. Roads to Recovery—Lanyon Drive upgrade between the Monaro Highway and Sheppard Street. When was it due? August 2008. How much? Five million dollars. How much has been spent to date? This was as at 30 June in 2007-08—$150,000. So a year and two months before it was due to be finished, all they had spent was $150,000.
If you look at this year’s report, you will see that it is exactly the same, except that, if you look at the June quarter this year, the government have now deleted the column “proposed completion date”. Honest, open, accountable! “We’ll just squeeze the information out of the public realm any way we can.” And when you look at the quarter’s date, this was June; this was 12 months on from when they had spent $150,000. What is the total expenditure to date out of a $5 million project? $695,000. So a medium-sized road project is nowhere near completion, it is now seven or eight months late and the money has not been spent. I know some work has been done since this report was put together.
But this is the point we make, Ms Hunter. It is well and good to say, “Trust them and work together with them,” but they exclude information from us. They hide the information. They are slow on all of the projects, and not a single major capital work project in the term of this government has been delivered on time or on budget.
Mr Hargreaves: You have no integrity, that’s why.
MR SMYTH: There is Mr Hargreaves. Mr Barr, can’t you keep your former boss under control? He will embarrass you as well as the rest of them. If you look at the motion that was proposed, it calls on the Stanhope-Gallagher government to explain how it will deliver these capital works projects on time and on budget. The minister responsible simply has no answer.
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