Page 3278 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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resolve these matters. He spent much more time on trying to smear Mr Parton for raising these matters in the Assembly, for bringing them forward in order to try to see real change. We are seeing this real trend, particularly from Minister Gentleman but from other ministers as well. Rather than addressing the legitimate concerns in their portfolios, they try to turn this back on the opposition as some form of smear or political attack. It is disappointing. I accept that that is part of the cut and thrust of this place.
This matter was highlighted to me when I was out doorknocking in Weston a few months ago. I came across a house, the garage was open and inside that garage five men were sitting. I said, “G’day; what are you doing?” It was a builder and his crew. The reality was that the builder had a number of DAs in the pipeline, all of which should have been resolved, under the statutory time frames. They should have been either approved or sent back for amendment. None of them had been. This builder was there, with his crew, who he was still employing, and he was paying them essentially to do nothing, other than to sit around in his garage whilst they were waiting for weeks and weeks for DAs to be approved, or at least to be dealt with, by the directorate. That is the reality of what is happening on the ground.
Mr Gentleman does not see that. Mr Gentleman sits in his ivory tower, he gets his sneering, smearing, vitriolic speeches written, which are less about dealing with the issue than they are about attacking Mr Parton or other members of the opposition. If Mr Gentleman had seen what I saw, which was a frustrated builder, along with his crew who he was paying, sitting there and waiting for DAs to be dealt with by the directorate that had taken weeks beyond the statutory time frames, maybe he would have an understanding of the impact of these delays on so many people. It has an impact not just on the builders but obviously on the customers, the people who have invested money into their dream, often to build a house or to do a renovation, and it simply cannot happen.
I invite Mr Gentleman to spend less time attacking the opposition, less time on his smears, and to spend some more time down on the ground, talking to builders, talking to the tradies that are not working in many cases—and good on this builder for continuing to employ his crew. But for many people out there, the tradies that this government and their members purport to represent, of course, they are the people most disadvantaged as they cannot get the work because there is a DA sitting there and waiting to be dealt with.
I fully support what Mr Parton is doing here. I say: good on you. I know that you are very active in this space. I commend Mr Parton’s motion to the Assembly.
Amendment agreed to.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (3.36): In closing, there is far too little action from Minister Gentleman in the amendment. The amendment gives the government the chance to do what they have been doing in the DA space for years—that is, to obfuscate and delay. That is the game that we seem to be playing.
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