Page 2092 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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Business and industry development has been cut by 20 per cent, limiting business development and limiting revenue that comes from this bedrock of the ACT economy. This is, of course, entirely contrary to what we have been hearing from this government in relation to stimulating the economy and to the dictums being touted as sensible fiscal policy; that is, if we are to run deficits they must be used to generate activity that builds for a long-term future. This short-sighted cut does the contrary.
In planning, we took one of the most comprehensive, complete overhauls of the planning system for Canberra to the people and to industry long before the last election. It provided for better leadership from the top to provide cultural change to ACTPLA, more support for staff to clear the backlog of DAs, and a direct engagement with industry through a small business response unit.
I note the planning minister’s embarrassment. We have more for him because, when it comes to some of the backflips we have seen, the planning minister has been the king.
Mr Barr: You’re kidding!
MR SESELJA: We will get to this. Don’t worry, Andrew; we will get to you on smaller class sizes.
Ms Gallagher: Are you getting any ideas, though?
MR SESELJA: I am sorry. The Treasurer obviously is not listening. We just put forward one of the ideas that this government has taken. It has been the planning minister who responded and pilfered some of our planning ideas after the election. We were very pleased. He put it out just before Christmas because he was so embarrassed—so embarrassed was he.
The planning failures of this government have long been document in the fiascos such as EpiCentre, QEII, the retail oversight in section 63 in Civic, the height overrun in Kingston, right down to carports and home extensions. The system has been racked by poor leadership and wrecked by poor resources.
Some parts of our policy have been adopted by the government in this budget and we welcome that. There is more to do and we will continue to advocate changes to streamline the planning system.
In infrastructure, once again Jon Stanhope promises big on infrastructure and year after year fails to deliver. $188.7 million has been rolled over from the 2008-09 budget into the forward years from underspends. This latest underspend includes $57.8 million in health, $59.2 million in education and $34.9 million in TAMS.
In the budget papers, Labor had the audacity to blame the delay in the spending of $29 million on Gungahlin college as “due to planning difficulties”. Who is responsible for planning in this town? Certainly not Labor. I believe it is the education minister, the man making the claim. This government cannot deliver infrastructure projects. The GDE, the prison, airport roads are just some of the examples.
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