Page 1925 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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Katy and Jon. They will show you how to take a few hundred million and make it disappear in a puff of anger and a bat of an eyelid.
Mr Speaker, it would be amusing if it wasn’t Canberra families that are really paying for all of this. Our cost of living is under stress because their cost of governing is out of control. It is as simple as that. Canberra families are paying more because this government keeps spending more. It is as simple as that.
Next year there is an election in this territory and the people will have to ask themselves: are we better off or not? One look at the cost of living study we released today shows we are paying more, but are we getting more? One trip to Canberra Hospital, one drive down the half-finished GDE, one look at the state of our streets, and that answer becomes clear. It is clear, after 10 years of this government, that ACT Labor will never do things differently. Whether in majority or minority government, ACT Labor have now got to the place where they believe they were born to rule.
Mr Speaker, Canberrans are becoming aware of the fact that they are being short-changed. They are realising that this government has stopped focusing on the community and is obsessed with its own legacy. The fact that this budget contains the single biggest expenditure project in territory history and it is a new office for Jon Stanhope says it all. We would do things differently. Instead of grand designs and global solutions, we would focus on basic services, delivered better, at a lower cost. It sounds simple. But after 10 years the government has not delivered on any of it and it never will.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (3.08): This budget is in itself reasonably unremarkable, yet we are entering remarkable times. It is a budget that delivers more of the same when we are facing a very different future.
The next decade will bring a significant global transition. In spite of some having their heads in the sand on climate change, the threat is real. In spite of some having their heads in the sand on peak oil, Canberra will not be immune to the challenges it will impose.
Irrespective of ACT government policy the reality is that prices for basic services will continue to rise—not just electricity and water but also food, fuels and a range of other resources we depend upon. When facing such challenges change is inevitable and business as usual is simply not okay. In managing the needs of our community now we must also have close regard to the long-term consequences of our policies and be aware that there is an opportunity cost to everything we do.
Since last budget the ACT has legislated a 40 per cent emissions reduction target, an ambitious target that reflects the science on climate change. It is true that much of the government’s response to this challenge will involve altering policy settings right across government and right across the territory. But this budget seems like a lost opportunity. While there have been some individual initiatives that are welcome, there is little in the budget to suggest any overarching strategic direction to address the task of delivering lasting prosperity in a carbon-constrained world.
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