Page 115 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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The Assembly did not receive that either. Why? It was because the government were hell-bent on having their own way, as they are so often, and they got it wrong. We know they got it wrong because they rolled over. Under the cover of a riot at the Lobby Restaurant on the day between Australia Day and the weekend, they just casually dropped the fact they were going to stop spending on the $420 million office project and move away from the train wreck that it was.
It is a train wreck because they did not do the planning right and they did not go out in a way to get the best return for the people of the ACT on the money that could have, would have or may have been spent on that project. You only need to look at the budget outcome today where the budget has deteriorated to such a large extent. It has gone from a deficit of $36 million to a deficit of $181 million. At the same time, the government has rolled over—sorry, not rolled over. It has “re-profiled into later years”.
Is that not a great turn of phrase—“re-profiled into later years”? You can see somebody getting their nose re-profiled or a landmark re-profiled but, no, we are going to re-profile the delivery of the capital works program. Here is a great paragraph: “The territory’s capital works program has been reviewed in light of the progress of planning, design outcomes, the receipt of necessary development and environmental approvals and consultation processes.” It almost seems reasonable, does it not? “This has resulted in $246 million in net expenditure being re-profiled into later years.”
They could not deliver it. They cannot afford it and now they will not do it. It is because they got it so wrong from the start. We see that pattern. The public accounts committee tabled that report in 2011. It said, “Just hang off.” Of course, then the estimates committee did exactly the same thing. They said, “Please, have some due regard to what the public accounts committee said and, please, make sure those three recommendations are met before you go anywhere else.”
But again, the government, hell-bent on having their own way, said: “No, the money is in the budget. You pass the budget and you get the great big office building. Job done.” Indeed, the Treasurer, then Katy Gallagher, said constantly, “We will go ahead with this.” Mr Barr, when he became Treasurer, said, “We will go ahead with this”. We have this disastrous backflip now where $5 million of government money has been spent and that work is now just gone. That is the budgeting outcome. The busway to Belconnen—there is another $5 million gone. There are so many other examples of where this government has got things wrong because they have not planned properly.
We see the latest fiasco where we are going to have half a women’s hospital. It is now stage 1 of the women’s and children’s hospital. The budget is blown. We are not going to be able to meet the deadline. It is a year or so late. $20 million or so later on, another fiasco brought to you courtesy of Gallagher and Barr. That is the problem.
The problem is that it is taxpayers’ money and the problem is that all of these fiascos in the delivery of capital works impact upon ordinary taxpayers, affect their costs of
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