Page 4 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 2018
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deemed to be unacceptable. As the saying goes, while I may not agree with what you say, I will always defend your right to say it.
I am a Liberal because I believe in individual liberty. I believe in choice and personal responsibility. I believe that you, not government, know what is best for you and your family, and I believe that you—Canberrans—deserve greater choice in how you live your life.
I am a Liberal because I believe in equality of opportunity and reward for effort. I think one of the simplest distinctions to make between our side of politics and those opposite is that the left tends to pursue equality of outcome while we pursue equality of opportunity. Where is the incentive to work hard, to better yourself and to strive for a better life for your family when there is no reward for your effort?
Public education is, of course, fundamental to achieving equality of opportunity, and I was lucky enough to receive a fantastic public education in Sydney. I had some of the most committed and dedicated teachers. I remember, in modern history and economics in particular, that we used to write practice essay after practice essay, yet nobody in the class could ever get a mark higher than 17 out of 20. It frustrated us no end, until eventually, once our exams were over, our teachers told us that all of our essays were consistently worth full marks; they just always knew that we could still do better. This is the kind of public education that our children deserve.
I am a Liberal because I believe in limited and effective government, and I believe that government should improve and not hinder your day-to-day life. How often have you found yourself at a barbecue or a friend’s dinner party when the conversation inevitably turns to “the government”? “The government” has increased our recent rates bill, meaning that we can no longer afford that holiday. “The government” will not allow me to cut down that tree in my own backyard so that I can renovate my house to accommodate my growing family. “The government” still have not fixed that pothole at the end of my street. So often it seems that government is doing more to complicate our lives than improve them.
I am a Liberal because I believe that government has a duty to spend taxpayer money efficiently and effectively and to live within its means so as not to burden our children and grandchildren with debt. As a teenager, it is all too easy to go out shopping with mum and dad’s credit card, giving very little consideration to where that money is coming from or how it could better be spent. It is an entirely different story when you get your first job and it is suddenly your own hard-earned cash that you are spending. This is the problem with government.
It is, of course, the hard-earned money of ACT taxpayers that we are spending. Government has a duty to ensure that ACT taxpayers are receiving value for money, and at the moment we are not. In fact, it often seems that ACT taxpayers are receiving far less value for money than any other state or territory.
In our schools we are spending more per student than most other states, yet our NAPLAN results are worse than similar schools in similar areas. In our hospitals we are spending more per person than any other jurisdiction, yet our emergency waiting
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