Page 2447 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The ACT is in the worst financial position since self-government. The years of mismanagement under this Chief Minister will impose enormous hardship on future generations of Canberrans. Our net debt is now forecast to be $6½ billion this financial year, and almost $10 billion in the forward estimates. To service this debt, Canberrans will be paying half a billion dollars each year. Let me say that again, Madam Speaker: by 2024-25, Canberrans will be paying half a billion dollars a year on interest repayments alone.
The Chief Minister is failing to listen to his own directorate regarding having a plan for sensible, responsible economic management. And he is failing to listen to the Canberra community on the government services they need.
On budget day, the Canberra Times quoted the Chief Minister as saying that the extra money from GST distributions to the territory were not needed to deliver more services because the government was already meeting demand. For all of his deflecting and fearmongering, he still has not answered a crucial question: for all of the spending, for all of the debt, what is our community getting? Where has all of that money gone?
Our health system is in crisis. It was already mismanaged and under-resourced long before COVID. Labor and the Greens are responsible for the worst emergency department and elective surgery waiting times in Australia. Patients are being treated in the corridors of the emergency department. Doctors and nurses are at breaking point, and the ageing infrastructure is falling apart. These issues are not new.
This is the result of deliberate long-term neglect and under-resourcing by Labor and the Greens. Year after year, hospital upgrades have been promised, abandoned, promised, re-scoped, promised and delayed. By the time patients are treated in the Canberra Hospital redevelopment, it will have been more than 15 years in the making. COVID added significant pressure to a health system that was already struggling. Does the Chief Minister honestly believe that Canberra’s health services are meeting demand?
Labor and the Greens talk the talk when it comes to education, but the reality is that academic standards are going backwards, violence and bullying are so bad that WorkSafe ACT banned students from coming to school, and we have crumbling infrastructure and hazardous materials in our learning spaces.
We also have a massive shortage of teachers. Only a few months ago, under persistent pressure from the community, the teachers union and the Canberra Liberals, Labor and the Greens were brought kicking and screaming to plan for recruitment and retention of more teachers. Does the Chief Minister honestly believe that our education system is meeting demand?
The frontline staff shortage is not limited to our health professionals and our teachers. Under this Labor-Greens government, we are seeing the lowest number of police per capita and the lowest clearance rates for property crimes. Does the Chief Minister honestly believe that police services are meeting demand?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video