Page 89 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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and miscommunication of what actually occurred down there. It is quite pitiful to have your own party members attempt to move a motion against the Tuggeranong Community Council. That really shows that you do not appreciate the work of volunteers in our community who put their hand up to represent their community, the town centre that they live in and love. They are being used as political cover by this minister and by her party, members of the ALP.
These are all reasons enough for Ms Burch as a minister to be moved on. This is the opportunity for Andrew Barr, as Chief Minister, to act on the hype he is creating about the renewal of the team that he is now leading, cut Ms Burch from the team, end her blunders and let the community be better off for it.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.46): I rise this afternoon to oppose this motion. I do so because I want to make some comments about Minister Burch and her commitment to representing the interests and responding to the concerns of the community which she represents and which she serves.
There is something slightly undignified about the all-in attack we are seeing from those opposite, but I guess that is politics. We will respond to that in kind in due course.
Very quickly, before I go to the substance of my comments, I would reflect on Mr Wall’s suggestion about instilling business confidence. If the Liberal Party were serious about their so-called commitment to instilling confidence in business, they would not be the party that is threatening to rip up signed contracts for the delivery of an important infrastructure project in this city and they would not be the party that is prepared to introduce sovereign risk into the investment environment here in the ACT. But of course they are; they are the party that are threatening to do just that. Maybe Mr Wall should look at himself in the mirror next time he considers that he is the champion protecting the interests of business in this city, when it is his party that is threatening to tear up lawful, written contracts for important pieces of infrastructure.
Let me turn to the substance of this motion. I watched very closely as Minister Burch responded to one of the issues that have been the subject of so much criticism from those opposite. That was the matter of the temporary closure of Tharwa Drive to allow for the completion of important works for the new fire and rescue facility for the south Tuggeranong community. Here was a minister, in Minister Burch, who, when she was first made aware of the problems that were being caused by that closure, went down into that community, experienced the problems firsthand and did it day after day until it was fixed. You would not see that happening with a minister in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria or Queensland—let alone one of Tony Abbott’s ministers. You would never see that. But you saw it from this minister, because this minister understands her community. She understands their concerns and she was there to try to fix it.
And she did fix it. She banged heads together in her department until it was fixed. Yes, there was inconvenience. Yes, there were concerns raised. The government was open
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