Page 3052 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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Go back through the records, go back through your statements, go and look at the debates in this place. I remember a fantastic interview with Kate Lundy. Mr Barr said that Labor cuts to the travelling program at the National Gallery were a good thing because people would have to come here to see it, and not even Kate Lundy believed that one, Chief Minister. Even Kate Lundy just said, “No, that’s not right.”
We need to make sure that the business community is listened to, and we have listened. We will get to the next debate shortly on the lease variation charge—another part of the failed Barr tax reforms. You can see it has never achieved the numbers in terms of revenue that were projected, and it has stifled development in the CBD. If you want to have a vibrant business community, if you really want to support business in the ACT, go back to the OECD report of 2002 that said to get Canberra working you really need to get Civic working. But here we are, 15 years later, and we are still talking about getting Civic working.
Mr Corbell had his future vision in 2005, none of which was delivered. Not one piece was delivered. We are talking still about city to the lake. We are talking about the city plan. We are talking about the corridor. This is a government of talk. Look at New Acton, for instance. New Acton only went ahead and achieved what it has now achieved because the proponents stuck at it. Had it happened under the ACT planning regime, it would probably never have happened.
It is important to distinguish between what the government has done and what has been done despite the government. The government will point to the success of Braddon. Most of that was done despite the government. It was about people getting in early and changing leases before the change to the lease variation charge, and good on them for doing that. They saw what it meant and they were prepared to take the punt and they did the work.
This government has not done the work. So much more can be done with our business community in the ACT. They are great men and women who put everything on the line every day of the week when they go out and start their businesses, when they back their own ideas. Yes, the Innovation Network is a good thing and the Innovation Network is doing some great work, but there were always the equivalent of innovation networks before the government funded and formalised them. And the question is still unanswered as to what programs were cut to fund it, because the funding for the Innovation Network came from existing funding.
It is important to read the report; it is important to read the abstract. The abstract basically says that we should expect the outcome we have. It is a good outcome; it backs the spirit of business and entrepreneurship, largely ignored by this government over the last 15 years.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning, Minister for Roads and Parking, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations, Minister for Children and Young People and Minister for Ageing) (10.49): I thank Dr Bourke for bringing forward this motion. There are many ways in which the ACT government is promoting and supporting businesses in the territory in my portfolio areas, along with those of my colleagues. The Majura Parkway project is a $288 million investment in
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