Page 248 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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It is interesting that the very power, the muscles the government wanted to flex to guillotine this motion, is indeed the very strategy which has led the government to not having the confidence of the floor of the Assembly to be able to get their motions up. As it stands, at present in this chamber the government do not have confidence. It is up to the government to maintain a majority on the floor, and the fact that they are unable to do that today is a bit worrying.
With regard to a third bin for garden waste, this is something which the Canberra Liberals have believed passionately about for many years. In fact we took this to the election in 2008 and of course it was received extremely well. I think seven of the eight of us on this side of the chamber fought that election in 2008, and I think all seven of us would remember how well received it was. You can rest assured that, when you are out doorknocking, you are at shopping centres or you are letterboxing, the issues of garden waste, of green bins and core municipal services are issues that regularly and repeatedly come up.
This year the opposition was proud once again to take the issue of a third bin for Canberrans to the electorate for the October election and it was once again well received. It is interesting that the one person that is absent from this chamber, the one person who missed a division on this, is of course the Greens member. The Greens’ position on a green bin is actually quite interesting because they got sold a pup by the government. Remember when the government said it was going to cost tens of millions of dollars, it was impractical, it could not be done, it could not be budgeted for? Well, Treasury said otherwise: in actual fact, rather than being the tens of millions of dollars that the government said, it actually was only $7 million.
So there is a large discrepancy in the figures put out as political spin by the Labor Party versus the costed policy prepared by the Treasury, and of course it was the Labor Party that sold this pup to the Greens. The Greens trusted them, like the Greens did on so many issues. The Greens took it on face value and then they, just like the Labor Party, were embarrassed when Treasury came back and said that the costing that the Liberal Party put forward was indeed accurate.
While we are talking about green waste, let us talk about the Greens’ electoral performance. They have gone from four members down to one; Mr Rattenbury’s vote halves, yet somehow they see themselves as an authority on all and sundry. On issues like this I believe the real authority lies with the voters, and the voters treat issues such as a third bin for garden waste as a high priority. They do not necessarily want an ACT government to talk about saving the world. They want an ACT government that is going to deliver the basics. They want a government that is going to deliver on rubbish. They want a government that is going to deliver on improving footpaths. They want a government that is going to deliver on road infrastructure. They want a government that is going to cut grass. They want a government to do all the essential services. And perhaps they also want ministers to be in the chamber. They also expect people to do their job. They also expect the Assembly to sit more than 13 weeks a year. They expect the Assembly to actually discuss private members’ business. They expect the Assembly to debate late into the night if that is the will of this place.
Instead, Mr Rattenbury’s absence is indicative of the fact that they are treating this as a majority government. They are treating this Assembly with disrespect and disdain and we on this side of the chamber will not support it.
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