Page 286 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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For some of us it can even be felt in the sound of gunshots ringing through the night. It can be felt in the long wait times in the middle of a night in the crowded hospital emergency department waiting room. We feel the unfairness as we wait for cancelled bus services or we purchase a second car to accommodate the need for a family to do a school drop-off because the dedicated school service has now been cancelled.
There has to be a better way. Some Canberrans are finding that better way, and for them it is just across the border: the lure of cheaper rates and cheaper housing, where it is cheaper not only to rent but also to own is an attractive proposition; better amenity and maintenance of roads and infrastructure and community facilities; more police; and in some cases shorter waiting times for elective surgery. For a business, the attraction is even greater with less red tape and an absence of trade union-driven bureaucracy and insanity impeding their way. For many, Queanbeyan and the surrounding New South Wales districts are an attractive option.
After 19 years of Labor-Greens government they cannot seem to break out of their bad habits, bad habits which resulted in increasing costs, the delivery of less and less in return year upon year, less by way of quality of services and less by way of improving outcomes. We often refer to successive Labor-Greens governments when we apportion blame for the excessive rise in the cost of living but, in truth, there is only one individual to blame and who should take all the responsibility. It is the Chief Minister, Mr Barr. He has been in charge of the books, occupying the Treasurer’s role since 2011. During this time he has made his disdain for the southern suburbs of Canberra quite evident, likewise his disdain for older people, working families and even at one point the media.
On Mr Barr’s watch, taxes and rates have risen to record highs; yet hospital wait times are the worst in the country. Commercial property owners are paying exorbitant rates, fees and charges just for making an investment in the bettering of this town; yet we cannot seem to manage or stop the decline in many other services. Maths and reading results for students in our schools are on the decline consistently. There is also a failure to provide some basic services like adequate school buses for kids to get safely to and from school.
Canberra is by all accounts an affluent city. There are some high wages being earned in this city but there is an unpleasant underbelly to all this as well. We have a disproportionate amount of poverty and kids in out of home care, we have rates of homelessness that do not make sense for such a well-off city.
Nineteen years of Labor and the Greens at the helm of our great city, nine of those under the stewardship of Mr Barr in charge of the budget, have brought with it so many misguided priorities. Canberrans deserve a better government that will focus on getting the basics right.
Back in 2012 the Canberra Liberals said that under a re-elected Labor-Greens government residential rates would triple. Sadly, hasn’t that come to pass! The notion of the rising cost of living is not something that we on this side of the chamber have made up. We feel it, we see it, we hear about it on a daily basis. In fact, we live it.
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