Page 5521 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 November 2010

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Ayes 10		Noes 5
Mr Barr	Ms Hunter	Mr Doszpot	Mr Seselja
Ms Bresnan	Ms Le Couteur	Mrs Dunne	Mr Smyth
Ms Burch	Ms Porter	Mr Hanson
Mr Corbell	Mr Rattenbury
Mr Hargreaves	Mr Stanhope

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Question put:

That Mr Stanhope’s amendment, as amended, be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 10		Noes 5
Mr Barr	Ms Hunter	Mr Doszpot	Mr Seselja
Ms Bresnan	Ms Le Couteur	Mrs Dunne	Mr Smyth
Ms Burch	Ms Porter	Mr Hanson
Mr Corbell	Mr Rattenbury
Mr Hargreaves	Mr Stanhope

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.59): I thank members for their contributions. We have heard a lot of interesting and differing arguments from the opposite sides about why they will not support this motion. But I think fundamentally it comes down to the fact that they are not interested in these issues. They show that through their policies. They show that through these debates. They show that through their votes in the chamber. Fundamentally, the ACT Labor Party and the ACT Greens do not care about cost of living pressures on households.

Let us go, again, to some of those costs of living and then some of the arguments that we have heard as to why we should not support this motion. The increases are: electricity prices, 69.9 per cent; water prices, 106 per cent; rents, 54 per cent; rates, 75 per cent; and public transport, 31.15 per cent.

Mr Stanhope spent a lot of time effectively using the argument: “We are not quite as bad as some of our state Labor colleagues, particularly New South Wales.” If the best you can do is say you are not quite as bad as the Keneally New South Wales Labor government then you are in trouble. You are in trouble if that is the best you can do. And that is much of what we heard from the Labor Party in particular.

It did not hold up because when we heard about water prices—and Mrs Dunne brought the figures—actually we are the most expensive. So we are doing worse than all those other jurisdictions. It is ironic really, given that the reason this region was chosen was its catchment capacity. It was due to the fact that it did have good water

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