Page 3803 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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could start construction almost immediately on that. But the government does not want to fund it. Whether it is not interested, I do not know. We will ask the Minister for the Arts. She can answer why, as to whether she has not been able to get that one through cabinet or whether they are holding it off for a promise of 2016. Who knows? I do not know. But the community clearly uses that facility, and uses it well. It is shovel ready and meets all the criteria for stimulus. It is the sort of project that a lot of Canberra-based, Canberra-owned, Canberra-employing construction firms could build. With it would come some work on the waterfront there, which again would be another contract. Instead, the government sits on its hands as it slowly funnels every drop of available resources into capital metro.
We saw this happen with the GDE. A $55 million project was turned into a $200 million project and it sucked the life out of the capital works projects for a long time.
Let me go to housing finance. This is the high spot. This is the high spot if you were waiting for it:
In four of the states and territories—Western Australia, Victoria, NSW and the ACT—trend housing finance commitments are above decade averages. And in six of the eight economies, trend commitments in August were above year-ago levels in all states and territories.
That is the good news, folks. When we get to dwelling starts, the ACT was up 9.2 per cent; it is running fifth.
The only other indicator that is a good indicator for us is this:
The only economy recording real wage growth was the ACT with wages up 2.3 per cent, outstripping a 2.2 per cent lift in prices. Wage growth was equal slowest in the nation but inflation was the lowest in the nation.
So there is the other high spot.
What is the summary? The summary is simply this, looking at “Implications and outlook”, state of the states report, October 2014:
The ACT has lost momentum, a consequence of a weaker job market, lower consumer confidence and falling retail spending.
This government has an obligation to boost consumer confidence. We have the talking down by the Treasurer of the potential of this city by his attacks on the federal government. He should get on with his job and he should make it work a whole lot better.
That is why I bring this motion on today. Part (2) calls on the government to “stop talking down the economy, depressing business and consumer confidence”. I acknowledge the role of the federal government, both Labor and Liberal. Unlike those opposite, I will acknowledge that both have contributed to the state we find ourselves in. If you want a proportion, let me say that 13 per cent of the job cuts come from the Liberal Party and 87 per cent of the job cuts come from the Labor Party.
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