Page 2312 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013

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what revenue to expect and therefore what level of subsidy would be required to make the capital works function every year.

This government is about to put a millstone forever around the neck of the people of the ACT, without doing the proper work. “We have got a good idea, we do not care how much it costs, we do not care how much you have to pay, we do not care how much we have to subsidise this good idea because it is our idea and it is a good idea.” It reminds me of a Monty Python skit from many years ago. “I have an idea.” Somebody over there had an idea but nobody has done the work. You really have to do the work on a major project like this to know whether it can be sustained long term.

Mr Coe asked questions about ACTION. ACTION this year have picked up $25 million of operational subsidies in the budget because they are not meeting their targets, they are not delivering the service and they are not looking after the people of Canberra. And when I asked Mr Corbell would there be job losses in ACTION when capital metro came, he said, “No, we will have ACTION and capital metro. We can subsidise both.” I do not think anybody can oppose a project where you put a clear case for it and you can explain the finances to people. But you cannot burden 374,000 Canberrans—

Mr Corbell: You do it all the time.

MR SMYTH: I know it stings, Simon. This is the man who delivers nothing. This is the man who stood up, what, six years after it was meant to be completed and said, “I have completed the GDE on time. In fact, I completed it early. Here I am standing by a road I completed early.” It was only six years late and four times the cost. This is the man responsible for the Emergency Services headquarters debacle that went from, what, $13 million to about $75 million and the Auditor-General said, “It will be more.”

If you do not do your work properly, the taxpayer pays. And that is the problem with all Labor governments. The taxpayer always pays. It goes into their cost of living. It is their money, their hard-earned tax dollars. It should be respected. But instead we have got deficits, we have got debt, we have got to sit and wait and we get no delivery from this government. This motion should be supported.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

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