Page 1433 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010

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not even get one lane if the Greens had their way. It is a shame, and I am sure that the people of Gungahlin will look at the statements of the leader of the Greens with great dismay. We know about the traffic jams on the GDE, we know about the traffic jams on Northbourne Avenue and, yes, we do need to find different ways to do things. But punishing the people in Gungahlin is not the way to do it.

This is an important motion. We are now six or seven weeks away from the budget. We clearly have a Treasurer who is not up to the job. She deferred, in this financial year 2009-10, taking any decisions—until we got the knee-jerk reaction of a couple of weeks ago when she said she was going to put a staff freeze on. It was a knee-jerk reaction, because in the year, as we heard in question time, almost 1,200 new staff have been put on—1,200 additional staff, then you have a staff freeze. Famine, feast, famine, feast; you have got to avoid that sort of cycle.

This government have had extra revenue of almost $1.8 billion, a 157 per cent increase in the decade, and they still cannot balance your budgets; they still cannot put a buffer in their budgets against the downturn; they still cannot provide adequate services, whether it be to the community sector, to address waiting lists or waiting times or the delivery of infrastructure on time. Again, go back to Gungahlin Drive and Mr Corbell’s budget promise: “on time, on budget, four lanes open by July 2006”. When did it open? January 2008—two years late, half a road and now its cost will escalate to such a degree.

As Mr Seselja pointed out, every one of those wasted dollars is a dollar that could have been spent on more essential services or on improving the amenity of the residents of the ACT. It is not our money; it is their money. It comes out of their wallets, the taxpayers’ wallets. It is taken away from their ability to provide for their families, to secure their futures.

This is a very important motion. I am disappointed that Ms Hunter has treated it with such disdain; that the aspirations and the money of the people of the ACT are treated with such disdain. It is disappointing in that regard. But it is an important motion, and it will be interesting to see when the vote comes to see if the Greens do vote against looking after vulnerable Canberrans or they vote to ensure that vulnerable Canberrans do not pay the price of the government’s fiscal ill discipline over the last eight years. It will be very interesting to see. (Time expired.)

Question put:

That Mr Smyth’s motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

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