Page 3028 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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MR HANSON: Transformational; they do want to be transformational with all their transformational projects like light rail. What did the Treasurer say—that basically this would be built at any cost. There is the tax reform and the great debt and deficit that they are building into the budget. We have a different view and that was articulated at the election. We have continued to make our point about where we see the city should go. We are very strong on the issue of better local services and lower fees and charges. We still maintain that that is something that the government should focus more on.
We have some policies that we have announced and will continue to fight for. They are good practical measures like the autism school that the government will not support; better funding for the Auditor-General, which the government will not support; the establishment of a fifth judge to improve access to justice, which the government will not support; an independent public service commissioner to actually make sure that some of the issues that are present in our public service—be it the bullying or other issues—are addressed properly. There are also issues like lease variation charges that are stymieing business development in this town and not threatening the public service throughout their wage negotiations.
We have a different approach. I will go through some of the particular measures. In point (b) of the motion, Dr Bourke is saying that we are building a strong economy and also creating fairness and opportunities for all Canberrans. Not true. We know it is not true, because a number of people, including commonwealth superannuants said to the estimates committee, as Dr Bourke would well know, that the tax reform is not fair for them. There are winners and losers arising from the tax reform. But it is not true that he can come into this place and say that this is fairness for all Canberrans. It is not. It picks winners and it picks losers, and there are many tens of thousands of losers out of the tax reform.
Point (c) makes reference to the number of targeted assistance strategies. The point again is that there are winners and there are losers. What we saw in the last budget is that a whole range of fees and charges are up and there are significant losers. There are some points about health services. I think we could argue that there as many bad news stories about health as there are good news stories, but we are seeing only the good news here.
Reference is made to the expansion of accessible and free nurse-led walk-in centres in Belconnen and Tuggeranong. We have talked at length about the problems with the walk-in centre, including the problems that it caused the ED. But I would also remind Dr Bourke that the government at the 2008 election promised to deliver three walk-in centres. They have delivered one that has caused real problems at the ED. Now they are promising two that have not been delivered. Whichever way you look at it, the government has done backflips and it has broken promises.
The motion makes reference to there being some money for non-government schools and students with disabilities. I support that. I would like to acknowledge the hard work that Mr Doszpot put in during the last Assembly advocating for money for people with disability in non-government schools. Support for the Aboriginal and
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