Page 1458 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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will wait longer for emergency treatment at the Canberra Hospital than anywhere else in Australia. So we are paying twice what we should be through your rates, through all other fees and charges, but we are getting the worst delivery in Australia. The same comes when we look at things like infection rates, readmissions to hospital, the cost to visit a GP, the number of people deferring treatment, the number of hospital beds that we have. On any measure we are paying more and we are getting less from ACT Labor. And what is their response? Try to blame someone else, rather than take responsibility themselves for their own chronic mismanagement.
It is the same when we look at education. This is the government that through their mismanagement of our education sector has led to schools being overcrowded. We saw under this government national news when an autistic child was locked in a cage. That is what happens under this government. We have an education system that has been so run down by this government that teachers on the front line are so under pressure that it resulted in an autistic boy being locked in a cage. This minister that cut 23 schools then has the audacity to try to blame somebody else for his own chronic mismanagement. It is absolutely outrageous.
Of course, we are all paying for this, because look at what has happened to rates—42 per cent, 45 per cent average. But in many, many suburbs across this town, when you knock on doors or go to shopping centres and talk to people, people’s rates have gone up exponentially. People are paying more than anywhere else in Australia for their household rates, and what are they getting for it? The longest waiting times in Australia, overcrowded schools, a rundown bus system that has the lowest patronage figures in the ACT’s history and fees and charges going through the roof.
Remember when late night parking fees came into Civic. I think it was Ms Lawder who questioned Mr Barr about what impact that would have on lower paid Canberrans, on retail workers, on hospitality workers. And what did Mr Barr say? “Well, it’s the difference when you are having a $100 dinner in Civic between sparkling water and still water.” No wonder the government are failing on every single measure when that is the attitude this arrogant, out-of-touch government have. They think the fees and charges and the cruel cost of living measures they are imposing on Canberrans are equivalent to sparkling versus still water at a $100 dinner in Civic. How out of touch and arrogant. How dismal. How cruel. Then they have the audacity to say, “Well, this is none of our problem. Let’s try to blame somebody else for this chronic mismanagement.” Well, these are all factors that relate directly to what is happening in the ACT.
Of course, in the budget last night we saw initiatives that will get business going. On the back of the work that was done in the previous budget last year what we are seeing this year are more initiatives that will get small business going. I have heard the Business Chamber talking positively; I have heard Peter Strong from Small Business Australia talking. There are many small businesses in this town—the people who create wealth and who create jobs—saying, “This is great. This is really good for Australia and it’s really good for Canberra. We’re going to get more employment. We’re going to get more activity happening, and that is good for Australia. That is good for Canberra.”
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