Page 2455 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 June 2011
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So, as I said in my speech, there is a mixed view on how we are going on certain measures and really this government can show that it can lead the way. It can show that it can be out there on the frontier. It can be moving ahead of the pack. We really are wrapped up in so many COAG processes but the government should show leadership. (Time expired.)
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (5.21): I thank Mrs Dunne for bringing this MPI before the Assembly today, because these are really issues that go to the heart of good government. Good government requires leadership and it requires delivery, or competence—the ability to get it done. It requires not just ideas and ideals but the ability to put them into practice, the ability to deliver on promises. That is where leadership comes in. That is where leadership is critical. In fact the two are intertwined because without strong leadership at the top competence issues will inevitably fall down.
If there is not leadership from ministers asking hard questions, making reforms within their agencies, then those competence issues come to the fore and then those failures come to the fore. We know that when that happens there are big consequences for the community. We sometimes get a little bit tired of going through the list, the litany, of monumental blow-outs and stuff-ups by this government. I think we could focus on what happened in 2001-02 to 2003-04. We could focus on what happened in 2005-06 to 2007-08. We could also focus on some recent examples, and I think that there clearly is a long list.
The GDE is the one that the community comes to us with the most often, I think. I think it is emblematic of this government’s competence and its vision to have spent more than a decade delivering nine kilometres of road. It is mind-boggling. It is mind-boggling that we have spent this long. I would have thought that by now we would no longer be talking about the GDE because it would be finished; there would be a two-lane highway. The people of Gungahlin would be enjoying a two-lane highway to get in and out of Gungahlin. But unfortunately that is not the case.
I think nothing highlights poor government decision making and lack of competence better than the GDE. And of course it goes to the basics of the decision-making process where you say: “Well, what are we going to do? What do we need?” Everyone knew we needed a two-lane road; they decided they would build a one-lane road just to try and save some cash in the short term.
Not only did they not save cash, it ended up costing a lot more. They have cost countless hours, countless thousands, tens of thousands of hours for Canberrans stuck in traffic rather than being with their loved ones or rather than being productive in the workplace, or rather than doing things that they would want to do.
So the GDE I think is emblematic of the government. It was poor decision making. It was lack of leadership at the top. Leadership would have said: “Well, everyone knows we need a two-lane road; our own projections say we need a two-lane road. Let us build it. Let us build a two-lane road.” It would then have been finished long ago. This would be a debate that would be long behind us, but unfortunately it is not.
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