Page 2852 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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If, at the end of that process, we discover that this “reform” is simply a subterfuge to slam the family budget even harder than ever before, to raise the cost of living higher than ever before, we will oppose it, and we will let the people of Canberra know the real story. Because one thing we do know: they will not hear the truth from ACT Labor.
Every year, I have included in my budget reply alternative ideas and innovations. Each one plays its own part in building a bigger picture and outlining my alternative view for Canberra. All of these ideas follow a simple creed to offer better local services and do so at lower costs.
It started with Infrastructure Canberra. Infrastructure Canberra is our comprehensive plan to engage with experts and offer genuine guidance to government. After so many years and so many failures it would be plausible that Labor might support that notion. But like so many other opportunities, it has been an opportunity lost. We will implement Infrastructure Canberra if we are elected, and we will start delivering projects on time and on budget. That is what the people of Canberra deserve, that is what they should expect and that is what they should get.
We have put forward ideas to help lower costs, in small ways and in big ways. We have put out policies to reduce car rego fees, saving Canberrans up to $100 a year and running the operational aspects more efficiently.
We have put forward policies to halve the government charges for sports fees and inject $3½ million into local grounds and facilities, making it cheaper to participate and providing better facilities when you do. As a parent of children who play junior sport, I am constantly hearing from other parents about the constraints of paying for it, but also of the need—and we are hearing it from clubs—to upgrade facilities so that young Canberrans in particular can have access to junior sport and have the facilities that they expect.
That is what a good local government does. That is what a good local government focuses on. It focuses on listening to the community, on delivering for the community and on ensuring that those basic services are delivered and the costs kept as low as possible.
We have proposed policies to support our veterans, in recognition of the work our defence personnel do for our nation and the fact that many defence families are based here in Canberra.
Our policies to support local businesses with reduced red tape and doing the core business of being a better customer—no more year-long waits for local businesses to be paid by their own local government.
We have proposed solutions to transport problems, like opening up transit lanes this government wants to keep exclusively but empty during most peak hour times.
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