Page 27 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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MR COE: Yes, I have. I have been out there. I have knocked on the doors. I have spoken to the Carpentaria residents, Mr Rattenbury. Have you? You are a member for that area. You are a member for that area, and you have not. Have a long, hard look at how you are going about making your decisions in this place, because if you are going to make decisions based on the back-of-an-envelope quote you get from Andrew Barr, I do not think democracy is being served very well. Democracy in this place is in jeopardy if all it takes is a back-of-the-envelope quote given by Andrew Barr to a member of the Greens to satisfy their decision to side with the Labor Party.
What we have here is a coalition. We do not have two parties. We do not have two parties at all. We have Ms Le Couteur defending the Labor Party on a position which is really indefensible. There is no information; there are no costings. Yet here we have the Greens subscribing to Mr Barr’s mantra about this road. I will go into this in a lot more detail during the matter of public importance, but I do not think we have seen the last of this. I think a lot of people in Harrison are going to take this a lot further, and I encourage them to do so.
It is also worth remembering that this government set up the community councils. The Gungahlin Community Council have been extremely thorough in looking into this issue, yet the government has totally rejected their comments, has totally rejected their consultation and is totally unwilling to act on what they said.
It is one thing to actually conduct a consultation. We saw that in Hawker; we saw that in Nicholls. It is one thing to conduct a consultation, but if you do not actually listen to the consultation and if you do not actually act on what you hear, it does not mean much at all. And that is what we are seeing here.
It is bitterly disappointing. It is bitterly disappointing for all in this Assembly and it is particularly disappointing for those in Harrison, who are getting a very raw deal because of a decision made by the Labor Party and the Greens.
National Multicultural Festival 2010
Statement by minister
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women), by leave: I rise today to inform the Assembly of the success of the 2010 National Multicultural Festival, which was held from Friday night, 5 February, through to Sunday, 7 February.
Having experienced the festival for the first time as minister, I would like to record how proud I am to be involved in such an event, an event that promotes the cultural, social and economic life of this city and an event, of course, that is also great fun.
As in previous years, the ACT government supported local community groups to participate in the festival as a way of building social capital and the capacity of local leaders, organisations and service providers from diverse backgrounds.
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