Page 452 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (11.13): The hypocrisy we see once again from the Labor Party and the Greens is absolutely outrageous, especially when we continue to hear the government’s rhetoric around creating a more open and inclusive territory, a more diverse territory, a fair territory. This government continues to stick by a policy that is unfair, inequitable and totally unjust. We simply hear rhetoric from those opposite about protecting consumers and improving on-demand transport options for consumers.
As Mr Wall outlined today, another economic lesson this government clearly needs to learn is that we would have nothing to consume if these individuals had not taken risks and invested their capital in the first place. Without business capital we would have no consumption. Why is this so difficult for the Labor-Greens government to understand?
This is not about whether these people have gotten their money back; This is about people—hardworking Canberrans—who have invested in their retirements and who have been left with nothing due to this government’s changes in policy. The minister claims that working with vulnerable people checks done in January were taking 4.6 working days and that Access Canberra works with employers to prioritise potential new drivers. If this is the case, why are we hearing from employers who are facing significant shortages in drivers due to government bottlenecks? No-one is suggesting for a second that we remove this requirement; we are just suggesting that the government improves these processes.
Mr Ramsay has claimed in his amendment that the government is committed to making our city more accessible and more inclusive. How is our city more accessible to Antonia and Ado, who can no longer afford to register their car? How is our city more accessible to the Khan family, who cannot afford to use their car and leave their home? How is our city more inclusive for Simeon and Bozna, who are forced to live on $220 a week, and for the many other families who are struggling to put food on their tables as a direct result of this government’s policy?
The Labor Party does not care about consumers. Many Canberrans use on-demand transport to get around our city and they have seen once again today that the Labor Party does not care about them and is not thinking about them. The Labor Party does not care about the hardworking Canberrans, the hardworking drivers, who are just trying to make a living for their families.
The Labor Party does not care about seniors who have lost their retirement incomes and had their life savings obliterated by this government—not by the market, not because they made a bad investment decision but because they put their trust in government.
The Greens, of course, are just as bad. They do not care about social justice. They do not care about the mental health and wellbeing of these hardworking Canberrans, and they do not care about some of the most vulnerable people in our community—our seniors—who can no longer work to support themselves.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video