Page 3899 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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MR SESELJA: Effectively his argument is: “This government has done such a terrible job everywhere else that you should be grateful, Kambah, that you’re not as bad as some of the others.” That is the argument that we are hearing from the Chief Minister today as he scuttles off again. It caused us some amusement, I think, as we listened to that argument from Mr Stanhope. What he is saying is, “No, no, no, we can’t help Kambah, and the reason we can’t help Kambah is that we haven’t helped any of these other centres.”
Because he has not done a proper job in Scullin or Evatt, he seems to suggest through his words today that the people of Kambah should be grateful. Effectively he is saying, “Let them eat cake.” He is saying, “Accept what you’ve been given by this government. Gratefully accept what Mr Stanhope has given you.” We could go to all of the examples where Jon Stanhope has chosen his personal interests over the maintenance of local shopping centres.
Let us have that debate. There was the $1 million spent on the twisted bits of metal on the side of the GDE. Now, there’s a shopping centre upgrade. There was the $5 million wasted by this government on the busway that was only going to get there over your dead body, Mr Assistant Speaker. It was only going to be delivered over your dead body and, Mr Assistant Speaker, you are still alive. I am pleased to advise that Mr Assistant Speaker is still alive; Mr Hargreaves is still with us. That $5 million was thrown away. There’s another five shopping centres. Then there was the five million bucks that Mr Stanhope and his government wasted on FireLink for nothing.
Mr Smyth: There’s another five.
MR SESELJA: There’s another five shopping centres.
Mr Smyth: Fifty million on the arboretum.
MR SESELJA: Another $26 million extra in this year’s budget for the arboretum. These are the priorities, the choices, that governments have. This government has chosen to neglect local communities. It has chosen to neglect local centres like Kambah. I commend Mr Smyth for bringing this motion forward. I commend him for the work he did in talking and listening to the people of Kambah. I was pleased to see when I read the Chronicle today the wonderful work of Mr Smyth on this issue for the people of Kambah.
We see the pattern. We have raised it right across the ACT. We have seen all of the Liberal members going to the local shops in their electorates, talking to the shop owners and customers and saying, “What can be done better?” Jon Stanhope’s answer is: “Well, it could be worse. You know, it could be worse for Kambah. It could be Scullin.” Why do the people of Scullin have to be treated in this way? It is because the government’s focus is on other things. They have not been able to control the costs and they have not been able to control their spending. They have spent tens of millions of dollars of our money with no result, in some cases, or a result that most Canberrans would reject.
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