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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2374 ..


MRS DUNNE (continuing):

Commonwealth took off the market indefinitely this financial year. He cannot deliver 400 blocks in Lawson next year-or 300, as he promises, the year after.

There we have it-Simon Corbell, the scourge of dual occupancies, is suddenly proposing to increase by 100 per cent, from 500 to 1,000, the number of dual occupancies, so he can inflate the figures, so he can sit there and say that he is improving the land release program. He is doing it by a pea and thimble trick. If Mr Corbell is convinced by it, nobody else is.

Let me turn to Belconnen-poor Belconnen. Belconnen has always been the ugly duckling of the town centres in this place. It is something I have been critical about for a number of years. There is never enough for Belconnen. Belconnen gets the leftovers and, boy, there are not even any leftovers! What do you get this time? No JESC, and no library in Kippax! As Mr Stefaniak has said, no skate park in Charnwood and no tennis courts in Charnwood. Mr Wood was talking very promisingly before the election about an arts centre. But there is no arts centre-not like the beautiful one in Tuggeranong. No, no-nothing is ever good enough for Belconnen.

Then we have parking fees introduced by this government by stealth. Where were they, in the election, being open, accountable and honest about the introduction of parking fees? Nowhere to be seen! As soon as they get a budget, what can they do? Introduce parking fees that are going to move into places where they have not been before.

Is this fairness? Not according to ACTCOSS, who have deplored it because of its regressiveness. Once again, the people who voted for this Labor government-the battlers of Belconnen-have been battered and betrayed by Labor.

Mr Stefaniak: Taken for granted, basically.

MRS DUNNE: Taken for granted. Here we have this sorry budget. What do we have at the end of it? We have a Chief Minister who, instead of selling his budget, is going to be swanning off to the Mediterranean. Previously, we have heard the Leader of the Opposition refer to the Chief Minister as Nero fiddling while Rome burnt. This time there are no initiatives for Canberra, but perhaps we have our own amateur production of Julius Caesar, with the Chief Minister the self-proclaimed, most popular man in the territory.

As he goes swanning off to the Med, as Julius Caesar went swanning around, I make a few warnings to the Chief Minister. Beware the ides of July, Chief Minister, because your Treasurer has the lean and hungry look of Brutus. Beware that, when you come back, you will not find yourself, like big Julie, stabbed in the back, in the Senate.

Mr Wood: Is this where Humphries used to get this crap from?

MRS DUNNE: It is pretty good crap, really. When you think about the great cast of Julius Caesar, look at the Minister for Planning as the new Caius Cassius. What would he be saying about the most popular Chief Minister in history? To borrow a word from the bard:


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