Page 22 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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neglect of 13 years. Spending $1 billion on a tram is not going to renew this city. All it is going to do is put our children into further debt for generations to come, for decades to come. That is not renewal.
It may be a good speech thing for the grassroots of the Labor Party to get the true believers, the comrades in the breaches, cheering away: “Andrew Barr, the great renewer.” It does not fool us, Mr Assistant Speaker, and it does not fool the people of Canberra. Use your buzzwords. I look forward to the one next year that you come up with. We have had “transform” and we have had “renew”. We look forward to the buzzword for next year.
Let me be very clear. This is a bad government, with 13 years of neglect across almost every portfolio. We will continue to hold you to account. Your lame attempt at buzzwords to try and pretend that there is renewal in this government when you have Simon Corbell, Andrew Barr and Joy Burch sitting there is not fooling anyone in this community. It is not going to fool the people who observe this place closely. I go down to the suburbs and I note that there is one Labor member—well done!—who goes to the suburbs. Let me assure you that it is not fooling the people of Canberra.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (11.10): I welcome the Chief Minister’s statement this morning. The Chief Minister has set out a clear and progressive agenda for the future growth and development of our city—growth and development of our city at a time when the Tony Abbott Liberal government is cutting the guts out of Canberra, leading to one of the lowest levels of business confidence we have ever seen.
We all understand what the federal Liberal cuts are doing to our city. We all understand that. The latest Sensis results of a business confidence survey confirm that. You only have to look at house prices to understand what Tony Abbott’s cuts to our territory mean.
The contrast between the chaos and the division that exist in the Liberal Party—federally, nationally—and what this government is seeking to do locally could not be clearer. Our agenda is about supporting innovation. It is about supporting jobs. It is about supporting opportunity and it is about investing in the infrastructure that our city needs. And the Chief Minister has set out clearly today his agenda. It is the agenda of a Labor administration committed to growing our city, to protecting the vulnerable and to investing in our future, backing ourselves to find our way at a time when we know there will be no help coming from the conservatives up on the hill.
I am pleased that the Chief Minister has outlined his commitment in particular as the minister responsible for urban renewal. We have to create more livable, more inclusive, more engaging neighbourhoods both in our urban villages and in our suburban centres.
It is why this government is investing in upgrades to important residential facilities, neighbourhood facilities—upgrades at local shopping centres across Canberra, creating better public places for people to enjoy. In my own neighbourhood of
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