Page 3316 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
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Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I wish to raise a point of order.
MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that “mislead the Assembly”, Mr Smyth. It is not mentioned in the motion.
MR SMYTH: All right. I mislead. I am sorry, I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
Mr Stanhope: You do mislead. You are quite right. We accept that.
MR SMYTH: I think the Assembly needs to remember that the minister was found guilty of persistently misleading the Assembly in June 2004. All we seek to do is say that he continues to do it.
Mr Corbell: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Withdraw that. Mr Smyth, you will not have the opportunity to continue if you keep flouting my rulings.
MR SMYTH : All right. I withdraw. What does the memo the minister refused to table say? I will read through the memo. It points out quite clearly the failure of this government, following in the footsteps of the previous government. It is headed, “ACT Rural Fire Service vehicle distribution.” It has registration numbers, call signs, vehicle locations, vehicle types, dates of manufacture and replacement dates.
It is interesting that, of the 54-odd vehicles listed, 28—more than half the fleet—came on line during the term of the last government. We were in office for seven years. That is about four vehicles a year. How many are listed here as having been replaced or brought on line by the Stanhope Labor government in the last five years? How many, Mr Chief Minister? Eight. That is 20 less than the previous government brought on line.
Since 18 January 2003, following the disastrous bushfires that occurred, how many new vehicles, according to this chart distributed to volunteers have been brought on line? Six. Two a year. Less than two a year. That is at half the rate of the previous government.
As Mr Pratt points out, you can throw money at problems but unless you do it appropriately, you do not get the outcome you want. What is missing from the fleet? What have we got from this government? We have got seven command vehicles, 11 light units and eight tankers that are beyond their use-by dates, that should have been replaced. Had the government had in place a replacement program like the previous government did, they would have been replaced.
Let us face it. There is no problem with the money. This government is renowned for throwing money at problems. The government continually throws money at every problem that it encounters or creates, but it does not get the outcomes. We see it in TRN, which is not functioning properly. We see it in FireLink, which is not functioning properly, and we see it in a fleet that is rapidly ageing and which has no hope of being replaced by this government because it has halved the rate at which the vehicles are replaced.
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