Page 2736 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
elected to make those decisions. But what it can do is give that high-level public advice to government. It does make it harder for them to reject that, because that is public advice that goes to the Legislative Assembly. It does not go just to the government. We can rely on that. The Assembly can use it, the government can use it, and they can work with the infrastructure commission to get that right.
There are all sorts of other ways that we may be able to improve things when it comes to the delivery of infrastructure. Procurement processes are extraordinarily slow. We have heard from members of the business community that when it comes to procurement it is harder with aspects of the ACT government than it is with the Washington defence establishment. That is not a badge of honour. That is actually a pretty damning critique. Why is it that we have a city-state, we have two tiers of government in one, and yet it is harder to deal with the ACT government than it is to deal with the Washington defence establishment? There are serious issues with procurement.
Procurement is not a sexy issue. It is not something that tends to win elections. You do not tend to go to the election and the key promise is you are going to fix procurement. But I tell you what, it is a key economic reform. It is a key reform for the ACT, because when you get it wrong, when you get procurement wrong, a few things happen. You do not build what you are meant to build. You spend too much when you are doing it and we wait too long to actually get there. So it has real-world consequences. It is not just an academic exercise, getting procurement right. So having an infrastructure commission could assist.
There are all sorts of ways that a government that was keen on reform, that was keen on delivering infrastructure, could actually utilise this kind of reform. These are the kinds of reforms we need. We are happy to keep putting them forward and I look forward to the government actually adopting them. The government could adopt that reform. They could agree. I have not got the letter yet but I am looking forward to a letter from the Chief Minister saying, “I have reflected. I think we have been getting it wrong. Jon was particularly pig-headed. He knew it was the right thing to do in his heart of hearts but he chose not to because it came from the opposition. I accept that.”
Katy, you have got a chance to fix it. I can see from the look on her face this is an attractive proposition for her, because she is thinking, “I could actually fix it. I could get a policy that is much better than what I have at the moment. I could get an infrastructure plan that is much better. All I have to do is admit that Jon was wrong.” That is easy. You can distance yourself from Jon. You have got the opportunity. You did it on executive travel. We heard that today. We heard her distancing herself from her colleagues, from her predecessor. She actually said, “I don’t travel business class.” She has taken a different approach to Jon.
You can take a different approach to Jon on infrastructure too. Let us face it, the last thing you want to do is take the same approach. Look at the legacy of the last 10 years. Ms Gallagher cannot distance herself from that because she was part of that cabinet that had been making those decisions, and we have seen those stuff-ups. But she can turn over a new leaf. And the new leaf is infrastructure Canberra.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video