Page 2707 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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major investment to increase the total number of police in the ACT by an additional 122 officers since 2001-02. This initiative demonstrates the commitment of the government to providing a safer community for the people of Gungahlin and the rest of Canberra.
I found it interesting that Mr Smyth referred to bus services in outer suburban areas. Those with a longer memory of public transport provision in this city would remember that the Liberals established a zonal bus fare system that punished Canberrans who lived in outer suburban areas. It was this Labor government that abolished that zonal transport system and instituted the one fare anywhere policy that meant that people in the outer suburbs of Canberra were not disadvantaged. For Mr Smyth to suggest that public transport services have been run down by Labor is outrageous. His policy position was to penalise people in outer suburbs through the use of a zonal system.
Mr Smyth claims that he wants better services for the outer suburbs. Perhaps he should have joined the Labor Party back in his formative political years. If he had, he would have been part of the team that delivers for Canberrans. Instead, he is part of the perpetual opposition, which is interested only in opposition for opposition’s sake. If he wants to deliver for Canberrans, he should back our investment in services and facilities for outer suburban areas by voting for this year’s budget. But we know he will not, because Mr Smyth’s entire contribution to ACT politics has been all about opposition—puerile opposition for opposition’s sake. He thinks that seven years is a long time to wait; we will ask him in 2012 how it feels after 11.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (3.59): I am pleased to speak on this matter of public importance here today. I thank Mr Smyth for bringing it to us and for his detailed outline of concerns for our community in the Tuggeranong Valley and in Canberra’s outer suburbs.
The provision of services and facilities in the outer suburbs, or rather the lack thereof, can be illustrated no better than in the electorate of Brindabella. My electorate is the geographical home of some of the most outer southern suburbs of Canberra, including Tharwa. I can also say that there are many positives about this neck of the woods. We have some of the most scenic and beautiful land in the territory. What we are sadly lacking is many facilities and services. In terms of our basic needs for public transport, infrastructure, health facilities and schools, we can find a gap in all of them.
If we are to look at geographic regions, I must make mention of Tharwa. I am not sure that the Labor members for Brindabella have found a reason to visit Tharwa in recent times; in fact, I think they are fearful of the reception that might face them. But if you were to go, Ms Burch and Mr Hargreaves, you would see a community that has had the life sucked out of it. The closure of its primary school by the Stanhope-Gallagher government has torn out the social fabric of this village. Indeed, we heard during the inquiry into school closures—I wait in anticipation for Mr Barr to condemn me for apparently looking backwards and not forwards—that it is a shame that Mr Barr does not recognise that issues lingering from past decisions must be addressed correctly in order to move forward.
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