Page 2826 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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completion of the great legacy item of Jon Stanhope, which is the arboretum. So we have in this line $26 million of funding for the arboretum so that Jon Stanhope can become the great tree killer of Canberra by not spending—in fact, by ripping $11 million out of street tree replacement programs. An amount of $11.2 million for people’s street tree amenity is being ripped out so that Jon Stanhope can put more money into the arboretum.
This will be his legacy, a legacy where he does not listen to the community. It is a legacy of wasted opportunities. In this case, it is a legacy of barren streetscapes when we do not see the money that is needed put into this street tree replacement program. We have seen this in an ongoing way over many years in relation to the arboretum but it has become stark this year as this government are delivering large deficits. They are delivering a slashing of the street tree program and at the same time finding $26 million to spend on the arboretum.
It is used as an example when you speak to people about the priorities. I think Mr Hanson quoted today from the carer of an individual who was waiting more than a year for elective surgery.
Mr Hanson: Allan McFarlane.
MR SESELJA: Yes, Allan McFarlane. She said that they seem to have a lot of money to spend on other things. I think she said that they spend a lot of money on artwork but they cannot get these basic things done. We see so many examples of that, don’t we? I will read what was said in the newspaper:
Miss Arrold is at a loss to understand why Mr McFarlane, who moved into aged-care accommodation last year, is still waiting for surgery. “I just thought, you know, we’ve got lots of money to spend on bicycle paths and bits of art and things like that, but we can’t get him in to have an operation.”
We see that everywhere. We see this money that is in this line item being spent on the arboretum at a time when maintenance in so many other areas is not happening, when we see basic services not being delivered. In this very stark example we see a deliberate decision to rip money out of the street tree program at the same time as spending $26 million on the arboretum.
I would like to move on to the issue of land release. The government have said that they are going to release 17,000 blocks over the next four years. There are real concerns about their ability to do it and their ability to get it to market quickly. We have received answers to some questions on notice on this issue. We see massive delays between when they announce blocks and when they actually get to market.
The recent sales of land in Molonglo that were reported are interesting. We saw that even those who did get through the process and eventually ended up buying—they did not know what the price was going to be and they did not know what they were going to buy—were not going to be building for a couple of years. They were not actually going to be getting the land until 2012.
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