Page 4335 - Week 13 - Thursday, 4 December 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
that there is a critical need to act quickly. This bill is a demonstration of the leadership shown by the government, and particularly by the Chief Minister, to provide a swift and total response to what is an unprecedented and unexpected challenge of a pervasive asbestos contamination across our community.
As the shadow Treasurer has mentioned in his comments and as we have discussed at length in the committee process, the bill predicts a final cost of the scheme in the order of between $300 million and $400 million. Our estimation is $337.777 million, but I am confident in one thing: that number will change over time as more information becomes available. But let us be clear that this is a significant cost that will be shared amongst all members of the ACT community.
The government have shown leadership in making a range of tough calls on this city’s infrastructure plans. Yes, we are assessing, and we will continue to assess, our spending priorities in order to address the ongoing risk that is posed by loose-fill asbestos. We have already made a number of announcements in relation to infrastructure projects that, as a result, are not going ahead on the time frame that we had originally envisaged. That has been met with some disappointment by advocates for those particular projects. There is always an opportunity cost, and there will always be a series of decisions that have to be taken. That is the tough job of being in government. We commit to working through those challenges, commencing with the midyear update for 2014-15 and then rolling through to the 2015-16 and 2016-17 budgets that remain in this parliamentary term.
Funds that are appropriated today will be provided to the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate so that the Asbestos Response Taskforce can get to work on the remediation program as well as provide financial support to people affected by Mr Fluffy.
It is important to note that the bill also includes $12.031 million in interest payments on the commonwealth’s $750 million loan to the territory in this 2014-15 fiscal year. The installation of Mr Fluffy into so many Canberra homes was something that did not occur on the ACT government’s watch. Let us be clear—and I think there is broad acknowledgement—that this happened on the commonwealth’s watch. I want to be clear, so that there are no misconceptions about this, that the task has fallen to us—this generation, this ACT government—to fix the mistakes of those in the past.
I also want to make clear, so that there is no misconception, what little support we have received from the commonwealth government for its mess that we are cleaning up. There has been some misconception, reported in the media, that the commonwealth has provided the territory with an interest-free loan. It has not. That is why we are having to appropriate money today from ACT taxpayers to pay the commonwealth’s interest bill. The commonwealth has made no net contribution, no contribution to the net cost of this scheme—no contribution, Mr Assistant Speaker. That is very disappointing. Nonetheless, we need to act now, and we will.
The passage of this bill today is an important step in the government’s response. I commend it to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video