Page 2750 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MS GALLAGHER: It has gone very well; we are very pleased with the program today, Mr Coe.
Mr Coe: We will be done by 4 o’clock; a long day!
MS GALLAGHER: I can tell you that my day does not finish at 4 o’clock. I do not know about yours. You might go and sit down and have a cup of tea upstairs, but there is plenty of work on this side of the chamber.
I thank Mr Wall for bringing the matter of public importance to the Assembly today. Indeed I welcome the opportunity to speak on the MPI, because it is very important to talk about priorities when you are in government—what those priorities are, what informs those priorities and having regard to the role of a jurisdictional government like ours, with state and municipal functions.
It is no secret to those opposite that the key areas for the ACT government are: health, and I am happy to list the projects to demonstrate that commitment; education, and again there is a very strong record having regard to the investments we have made in education and the hard decisions we have taken to ensure that our education system remains the system of choice; and public transport, which again is very important. If you listened to those opposite you would think we were dreaming up a whole new area of government service delivery when we are actually talking about delivering core functions of government which are involved in an integrated, modern public transport system in the nation’s capital that will support the development of the north part of Canberra and flow through to the rest of Canberra as the city develops over time.
It is a challenge for those opposite to get their minds around, because it does paint a longer vision than the next election. It does look out beyond that and makes us think about what are the right decisions for the city in the long term, and what Canberra deserves as the nation’s capital in terms of building and preparing the city, and in terms of our infrastructure.
We have seen the opposition challenge this time and time again, when they are given outlines of long-term projects that will be delivered over a number of electoral cycles. The health infrastructure program is an example of that. It has now been running for six years, and it will have at a minimum another six years to go.
I refer to the changes to school infrastructure—the growing of new schools, the building of new schools, the investment in existing infrastructure, and being able to manage the demographic change in student populations. That will be an ongoing piece of work, just as public transport will—as well as, of course, as we spoke about in question time, delivering a fair and solid future for the thousand Canberra homes and the more than a thousand home owners who have found themselves living with the legacy of Mr Fluffy in the city.
They are all core priorities of government, and I do not think you will hear those opposite out campaigning that they are not. We are being very clear and up-front with
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video