Page 3424 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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When we look at the economy with all of the advantages we have talked about, we see that recently we have slipped from the best economy in Australia to the second worst. The failings are numerous. Mr Smyth will often talk about the failure to diversify and to create opportunities in the private sector. Fail.
Health: this government took over the best health system in Australia and on many, many key indicators has turned it into the worst. The elective surgery, be it our emergency departments, or be it occupancy, with some of the stories we are hearing now—sadly, Ms Lawder’s mother-in-law was one of those—nobody is now saying this is the best health system in Australia. So, on health: fail.
Education: we see a good education system, but I note the number of people in this territory that vote with their feet and actually use the independent school system. What we have seen over this time is a government that closed 23 schools and now has a situation where many schools are at or over capacity. That was a massive failure. It was not driven by good education policy; that was driven by the Costello review, mismanagement of the budget and panic. It closed 23 schools despite the Chief Minister having previously said no schools would be closed. Education: fail.
Public transport: go and use the buses, go and wait for a bus and look at the statistics on usage. Despite the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent, despite all of the rhetoric we hear, look at the usage numbers.
Suburban maintenance: I get out, as do my colleagues, regularly and talk to people and go and visit local suburbs. Get down on the ground—I know the ministers do not do that—and talk to the people of the ACT about what they think about suburban maintenance. They will give you a very resounding message that things were better 12 years ago than they are now when it comes to suburban maintenance. You know this, Minister Rattenbury, because you get many of my letters. Fail.
The arts: we now have a Minister for the Arts who thinks that promoting the arts in this town is about Nazi strippers and spending government money on plays called Kill Climate Deniers. That is what the arts has become under Joy Burch. We have many, many people—ask Mr Smyth, the shadow minister for the arts—in the arts community asking what has become of arts in this town. Why do we have this minister running this agenda that is so out of touch with our arts community?
Planning of this great city: I know Mr Gentleman has only taken over this portfolio recently so I will not direct much blame to him. I know he just takes his directions from the Chief Minister on things like the bush healing farm or Simon Corbell on other things, but you talk to any of the people in this town who are trying to do developments, who are trying to keep building this city, be it from the smallest developer or someone trying to do a reno all the way through to the big guys in this town, and they will give you the same message: the system is broke.
Business: as much as Dr Bourke tries to blame everything on the Abbott government, it is a reality that the federal government will increase and decrease the size of the federal public service, and there is not a lot that we can do about that from the ACT.
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