Page 2737 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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I commend it to the government and I say, “Don’t be pig-headed. Don’t be stubborn. Do what is best for the people of the ACT. Say to the people of Gungahlin, ‘We stuffed up. We know we have really made your lives hard for the last few years as you have been stuck in traffic, and you are still suffering as a result of our decisions. But we are going to turn over a new leaf now and we are actually going to make some reforms.’” So I would commend that to the government.
I would say to the Labor Party that we can give them the briefings. We are very happy to assist. It is good policy, it is robust policy, and these kinds of policies are now being adopted all over the country because they are the right way to go. They are the right way to do infrastructure. They are reflecting the economic importance of good infrastructure delivery. They are reflecting the fiscal importance of good infrastructure delivery. We have had a massive fiscal hole as a result of the cost blow-outs in our infrastructure under ACT Labor.
So the answers are there, and we are happy to put them forward. But this government now needs to answer for its record and why it will not do things differently and why it has not done things differently. It has had 10 years to get this right and it continues to get it wrong, whether it is Gungahlin Drive, whether it is the Cotter Dam, whether it is the prison, whether it is north Weston ponds. You could go through another 20, 30 or 40 examples of where this government has got its infrastructure wrong.
So the challenge is there. Support good policy. Whether you come up with it or not, do it for the good of the people of the ACT. Particularly do it for the people of Gungahlin. Particularly do it for the people in our outer suburbs in Tuggeranong and the like. I think that they deserve better than what they are getting.
But I come back to the government office building. This is infrastructure that we do not need. This is just a building. This is a building that we do not need. We have got lots and lots of office buildings in this town. Many of them are empty. The government has said, “Despite the fact that that is the case, despite the fact that there are infrastructure needs all over town crying out for government investment, all of those are going to be left high and dry.” Their infrastructure needs are going to be put at the bottom of the queue. Go and talk to your local rugby league club, your local football club—that would be soccer for those who are not up with the changed lingo; it would be soccer for some—your local Aussie rules club, your local netball club, your local softball club. In local sport, the need for better infrastructure is apparent. Any number of sports could do with a cash injection.
All of those are going to be left high and dry because their infrastructure needs are going to be put at the bottom of the queue while this government puts a fancy new office for itself at the top of the queue. When we need better roads in parts of Tuggeranong, in west Belconnen, in Gungahlin, in Molonglo as it grows, when we need better roads there, they are going to be put to the bottom. And we will see more of that, will we not? We will see more of the lack of investment in those critical pieces of infrastructure.
The government actually has a choice. It can choose good policy, as we have put forward, real infrastructure reform. Secondly, it can choose not to waste taxpayers’
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