Page 87 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order, members! Four to one is not a fair fight.
MR HANSON: Let us turn, then, to some of the spending measures that we have seen from the ACT government. One of the most talked about is the Arboretum. This came up as a matter of debate previously in this place. At that time, the minister interjected and was saying to me, “All your mates in the business community like the Arboretum, Jeremy.” This is the point. On the cocktail circuit or in talking to business and people at the top end of town—they probably do like the Arboretum. When they drive past, I think that a lot of people in the ACT say, “That is going to be nice.”
The point is that it is a matter of priorities. If you are out there in the suburbs, if you are living in Weston Creek, Tuggeranong, Belconnen or Gungahlin, it is a matter of priority. Yes, you might like an arboretum, but was that where you wanted the ACT government to be spending their money? Did you want them to be spending their money on the feed-in tariff? Did you want them to be spending their money on public artwork on the side of the road? If you talk to many Canberrans—not the top end of town; not the people you hang out with, Mr Barr, potentially—and if you go out there into the suburbs, if you go out and have a chat—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Order, members! Mr Hanson, through the chair, please.
MR HANSON: you will find out what they have got to say about things like public art and about the Arboretum. And of course there was the Cotter Dam—was it the tripling of the cost of the Cotter Dam?—and the impact that that is going to have on families. The increase there has been deferred till close to the next election.
You can see that these are not price increases that have just happened in the first nine years of this government; they are planning on it further on. Hopefully, we will have a Liberal government by that time.
While Mr Corbell is here, we could probably talk about the jail—the expense that we have seen in the jail and the pressure that that puts on the budget. In 2009-10, each prisoner was costing us $477 per day. We know that we have got bunk beds being retrofitted into the jail because it is full, and we know that the government is considering the need to further expand the jail. When it comes to priorities, when it comes to expenditure, spending so much both on the capital outlay and then on the operational cost of the jail, when so many families are doing it tough to just put a roof over their own heads, this is where the people of the ACT, the families of the ACT, question this government’s spending priorities.
What about health? Health is not an area that is immune to cost of living pressures. If you are a Canberran and you are trying to find a bulk-billing GP, good luck. We have the lowest number of bulk-billing GPs in the country. If you do find a GP, and you do pay for one, what you will find is that you pay more per episode of care—per consultation with a GP—in Canberra than anywhere else in the country.
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