Page 1138 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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people are busy paying off mortgages, getting to work and raising their families. The builders, the tradies, the small business owners, the nurses and the teachers, the public servants and the retirees, the parents and the families are all working hard to get ahead, treasuring their homes and their communities—all deserving respect but often feeling neglected by their government. That is why our plans, the Canberra Liberals’ plans, will be unashamedly focused on improving the livelihoods of the great majority of Canberrans who live across our suburbs and not integrating ourselves, just as a small minority who hold the balance of power in this place.
The Canberra Liberals’ vision, as my motion outlines, is focused on addressing the real concerns of Canberrans. What people tell us, when we hold our mobile offices, when we doorknock throughout those forgotten suburbs, when we meet community groups and attend events, is a very different set of priorities. This has led to the development of several clear priority areas that have been neglected by this government, just as the people in the suburbs of Canberra have been neglected.
First, we will unashamedly pursue economic prosperity for all Canberrans. For us, prosperity is to be pursued, not derided. And to start with, we will pursue a Canberra with a true city heart, with vibrant town centres, while ensuring that the suburbs where we live keep their character. We will improve our planning laws—and I think that is relevant to the debate we were certainly having yesterday—and we will fix the ridiculous system that is driving development in this city to a halt. For all the glossy brochures and the grand plans, the fact is that this government has not developed the city or the town centres.
Concurrently we will also protect the character of our suburbs because it is where we live, it is where we raise our families, and accordingly we will do all that we can to make Canberra a city where home ownership is attainable, is encouraged and, importantly, is respected. We share the belief of a great majority of Canberrans in the importance of their homes, because if family is the most important thing in most people’s lives, no matter what that composition of your family is, your home is where you build that family.
But under Labor, based on their published plans—and these were the plans that were published, put in this place by Andrew Barr as a result of a motion of this Assembly—homeowners in Canberra will be slugged an extra billion dollars a year in rates by 2031. I will say that again: an extra billion dollars in rates by 2031. The Labor Party talked about their progressive tax reform. That is not progressive, that is punishing.
Another great challenge must be to fix our health system and, with the outstanding quality of our Canberra doctors, our nurses and our other health professionals, we should not just be aiming to make the health system better. We should be aiming, and we will aim, to make, and we will make, our health system the best health system in Australia, as it was when the Liberals were last in government.
Under the ACT Labor government, health planning has been chaotic and our hospitals are full. Literally, tens of thousands of Canberrans have waited longer for surgery and access to emergency treatment than they should have. And in many cases they have waited longer than anybody else in Australia, over the last 12 or 13 years, because of
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