Page 2814 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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MR SESELJA: It is a lot of trees—and it is a lot of other important services to the community as well. Several million dollars a year from dead running: are they fixing that? What are they doing to fix dead running, so that the several millions of dollars that we see empty buses costing us—that is apart from all the empty buses on routes that we see from time to time; these are the empty buses when the route’s service is finished—are reduced. Millions of dollars are wasted. We see the grip that the TWU has on this government and the inability to actually find real savings and make real reforms. We see that, in fact, this government has no interest in actually finding savings. It makes noises from time to time about finding these savings, but it has done nothing to actually bring that about.
I want to touch on the issue of shopping centres and the maintenance of our local shops. We have seen in recent months a number of communities saying to us—whether it be shopkeepers, whether it be shoppers, whether it be local residents—that in so many cases their local shops are not up to scratch and that the government has not committed the maintenance to them that they need.
We have corresponded in relation to Hughes shops and Deakin shops and Manuka shops. We have heard in relation to Evatt and Spence. There are issues at Giralang and Weetangera. When we highlighted the issues that have not been addressed at Manuka, the Chief Minister, in fact, said, “That may well be true in relation to Manuka, but look at all the other shops that we have not maintained properly. What about all the other shops that are run down?”
Mrs Dunne: They are awful too.
MR SESELJA: Indeed—and we are highlighting the lot. We agree with the Chief Minister that it is not just one, it is not two; it is so many. We have seen in relation to Manuka that it is important to locals and it is also important for tourism. It is somewhere that tourists tend to congregate. It is a very nice part of Canberra, and we would like to keep it that way. At Deakin shops, of course, there has been a refurbishment, but it was handled so poorly that it put the shop owners out significantly, time and time again. It was not done in genuine consultation and it seemed to cause maximum disruption to some of the businesses.
We have seen recently in relation to Hughes shops several basic maintenance issues around lighting at the back. I draw that to the attention of the Chief Minister—and I already have through correspondence. That is an urgent priority. There are many elderly residents living in and around Hughes, and the lack of lighting at the back of the shops is an important and significant safety issue. It is an issue of real concern, and it should be pushed up the priority chain.
We take an old-fashioned view that an ACT local government should actually first and foremost focus on local issues. First and foremost, it should look at things like replacing street trees, maintaining our local shops, delivering an efficient public transport system—and it should not do this by slugging families. It should not do this by applying this “do as we say, not as we do” approach to public transport, where they tell the families in the suburbs, “You have to get on the bus.” It is fine for those
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