Page 2256 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Where is the government’s strategy taking the ACT, and what confidence can there be within the business community in the Stanhope government? The Chief Minister could do a lot of things to change his rhetoric. He could stop describing the business community as whingers. That is not productive. Beyond that, the Stanhope government needs to be positive about what it intends to do to strengthen the private sector and to diversify the economic base of the ACT. The ACT must do all it can to move away from being a one-company town. In the Canberra Times of 23 July, Chris Richardson of Access Economics is reported as saying:
The ACT’s reliance on federal spending is a weakness [and] it remains a “one company town” to a rather risky degree.
That is the analysis, and I do not think that anybody thinks of Chris Richardson as anything but an excellent economist. Canberra is a town condemned by a Chief Minister—a Chief Minister with no vision, no commitment, no consistency, no programs and no relationship with the business community—not to a broadened economic base, but a narrow base with high taxation on one sector, the property sector.
The estimates process covered indigenous issues, which, of course, is under the Chief Minister’s Department. The Chief Minister again is riding roughshod over the community. He has picked a site for the bush healing farm. It is interesting that the bush healing farm is going to be right on the edge of the town. If he actually went out and spoke with the indigenous community, they would tell him that they actually want something in the bush. They want to take Aboriginal men, particularly young men, but all Aboriginals, if necessary, away from the city. They want to get them reacquainted with the land. They want to teach them skills. They do not believe they can do it in the city, and this is why the Kama site is unacceptable, and I am sure Mr Seselja will have something more to say about that.
There are concerns in the indigenous community about what is happening at the old museum site at Yarramundi Reach and some of the other services provided. Answers were not forthcoming in the estimates and there is confusion out there about the Chief Minister’s commitment to indigenous people. Again, when he responds to this, and I am sure he will, he might like to outline what will happen there and explain his level of support for a true bush healing farm. There are a number of sites the community has picked out to the south of Canberra. They are sites that I understand are vacant and that the ACT could make available.
There has to be some communication there. It cannot be done by decisions handed down on high from the Chief Minister. If this is to work, he must take into account what the indigenous community wants. I think this is indicative of this whole budget process. The Chief Minister does not listen. He has got majority government. He hands down his dictums from on high and we as a community are suffering.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (8.29): I wish to speak about multicultural affairs and, without question, support this line item.
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