Page 1485 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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to the pension,” “No changes to the GST”? Remember all of that? Lies, Madam Assistant Speaker; they were all lies. That is the consequence that we are now dealing with here in the ACT.
In my own portfolio, we are seeing a range of impacts as a result of these cuts. Most concerning to me, and the one with the most immediate impact, is a cut to legal aid services in our community. Legal Aid represents the most vulnerable in our community, people who cannot afford legal representation but are facing serious charges in court that may result in significant penalties against them if they are not properly represented. What is the impact? What is the impact of the Liberals’ cuts on legal aid? The impact is $400,000 less next financial year to ACT Legal Aid to represent the most vulnerable in our community. That is at least 2½ full-time staff, who represent and provide assistance to the lowest paid, the most vulnerable, in our community. It is a disgrace.
It is in contrast to this government’s commitment to improve funding for legal aid representation, such as the initiatives announced in the last budget to provide over $1 million worth of funding for the creation of a new community legal hub. Here is this government supporting legal aid services, and there are the Liberals cutting it—cutting services to the most vulnerable in our community.
The government is also concerned about the impact on funding and the reduction in funding and agencies to support the development of renewable energy in our city and our region. The cuts to ARENA which I mentioned during question time have seen $1½ billion of funding ripped away that would otherwise have been provided to hundreds and hundreds of renewable energy projects across the country—projects that would have created construction jobs, service and supply jobs, and ongoing jobs in the maintenance and operation of the facilities. Of course, they would have had an environmental benefit as well as an economic benefit, but those opposite clearly are not interested.
Those opposite are only interested in the environment if it means they can force people to work for less than the minimum wage. That is exactly what the new green army scheme is going to do. The green army scheme forces people to work in that scheme for less than the minimum wage. What an absolute betrayal of some of the lowest paid and most vulnerable in our community by this government. You are going to be compelled or expected to participate in the green army scheme, but you are not going to be paid a minimum wage, and you are not going to be paid for the value of your work; you are going to be paid less than that.
That is the sort of government we now have from the Liberal Party. That is the sort of government we now have from this Tony Abbott Liberal government. The impacts are being felt right across our community.
This government does have a plan and a strategy to address these challenges. We cannot do all of the heavy lifting. It is not reasonable, as the Treasurer has said, to expect the ACT government to pick up all the slack, to somehow compensate for the impact of the reduction in public sector spending by the Tony Abbott Liberals, but we will do everything that we can—
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