Page 4418 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 November 2005
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It is quite clear that Mr Stefaniak did not know that the prison had been funded to the tune of $128 million. The money is waiting there in that nice little bucket that we keep it in to be expended as the project develops. To date, of course, the project has consumed somewhere in the order of $10 million of the $128 million that has been appropriated. At this stage, much to Mr Stefaniak’s chagrin, the project is proceeding on time and on budget. To date we have let contracts to the tune of about $10 million of a total of $128 million. This funding is all appropriated and waiting to be expended.
It is a fantastic signal of the strength of the ACT economy and the fact that we have, as a government, been able to be engaged in these major investments in the Canberra community. It is interesting to reflect on what this government has achieved in four years of investing in infrastructure and services that had been allowed to run down pitiably under seven years of Liberal government.
We are able to invest $128 million worth of budget funds in a prison and an additional $40 million-odd in a juvenile detention facility. We have been able to invest an additional $300 million or thereabouts in health. We have been able to invest to the tune that we have in education. We have dragged ACT public service wages up to commonwealth standards after seven years of Liberal Party neglect.
It is worth reflecting on the enormous investment over the last four years in essential infrastructure, in essential services and in the people that serve the people of the ACT. We see Mr Mulcahy out there still ranting about the fact that ACT public servants are overpaid and that they do not deserve the salaries they earn. The alternative and next Leader of the Opposition in the ACT, Mr Mulcahy, believes that ACT public servants are overpaid. He would not have given you the pay rises that you have achieved over the last four years because he does not like public servants. He does not like the work you do. He believes you are overpaid.
He is the only Australian outside the federal parliament who has received personal briefings on the current IR package that is being debated in the federal parliament. He boasted in this place that he knew, before it was released, what was in the package. He was on the inside, one of the insiders, as a result, I am sure, of all he learnt when working for the hotels association, particularly how to negotiate your own separation payment. Mr Mulcahy holds up his separation payment as the sort of deal that you can strike with an employer when you are working under an AWA.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Come to the subject matter of the question.
MR STANHOPE: I will, Mr Speaker. What I was saying was relevant. We were talking about the budget. I was talking about the Liberal Party’s position on the budget. In that context, I was mentioning that Mr Mulcahy is starting to look a bit like Peter Costello, the “gunna be” challenger. He is the Peter Costello of the ACT Legislative Assembly, the leader in waiting who does not have the bottle to have a go! But he will be the next Leader of the Opposition and the point needs to be made when we are discussing budgets that Mr Mulcahy, as Leader of the Opposition, will ensure that no ACT public servant ever gets the wage rises they deserve.
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