Page 464 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
from quietly waving through federal plans to kneecap the Gonski funding reforms and the funding structure that goes with a needs-based approach to school funding.
It is well past time that they stopped defending the indefensible. We all know, and Canberrans know, that these federal Liberal government cuts will have a disastrous effect on our city’s hospitals and our schools. These federal Liberal cuts will condemn our kids to a second-class education and put them at a profound disadvantage in a global economy. I cannot remember one single statement from those opposite defending Canberra schools and hospitals from the attacks and the cuts to funding from their colleagues just up the road on Capital Hill. Maybe we might hear such a comment today. It may be very late but it is better than never.
Clearly, their most grievous attack on Canberra’s economic credibility, and what puts us at risk, are the propositions that the Leader of the Opposition has just put forth about wanting to attract investment into Canberra. It is the sovereign risk arising from the threat to rip up validly executed infrastructure contracts no matter what the cost to our city’s reputation or to future infrastructure projects that we all know are necessary for this city’s growth.
All major Australian business and infrastructure groups have condemned such economic vandalism. Even their federal colleagues will not offer the faintest support because they know the risk it poses not just for the ACT but for Australia. But the economic lunatics opposite are willing to trash our city’s reputation and, indeed, our country’s reputation on the basis of political opportunism. While their focus is on destruction and what they are against rather than what they are, for my government will continue our focus on making Canberra stronger, getting on with the job of delivering education, health, transport, renewable energy and economic development outcomes for Canberra.
We are proud of our achievements and we are also focused on what is needed for this city in the coming decade. We need to deliver for the people of Canberra today, tomorrow, over the rest of this decade and into the future, a positive plan for Canberra’s future. We are prepared to stand up for this city, to support its continued development, its continued social inclusion. The contrast is with the negativity of those opposite.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.25): This morning we heard Mr Hanson’s election stump speech—a speech full of platitudes, generalities and motherhood statements. By the time the election does come around in October—and that is clearly what Mr Hanson was focused on this morning in his speech—I think Canberra will have seen through the magic pudding of promising anything without taking any serious consideration of what it takes to pay for some of those things.
That is the reality of the speech that Mr Hanson gave this morning. It is in stark contrast to the way the Greens have played a role in government and the influence that we have had in terms of delivering outcomes that the people of Canberra want to see: things like action on climate change, action on equality, action on health, transport,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video