Page 2901 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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figures on Floriade—the fact of the matter is that Canberra has got a long way to go in this area. It is disappointing that he has not, in fact, been able to deliver more results since he took over that portfolio. It must be the better part of 12 months ago.
The constantly changing financial position of this territory fortunately has been going in a positive direction, and that is due in no small part, although it is rarely ever acknowledged, to the work of the Howard government. The fact of the matter is—
Mr Barr: Ha, ha!
MR MULCAHY: Mr Barr laughs—
Mr Stanhope: Peter Costello. The old tug-tug is at it again. Tug the forelock.
MR MULCAHY: and Mr Stanhope makes rubbish of this, but the fact of the matter is that if he bothered to go and look at the statistics and look at the job creation that has occurred in the national capital under a federal Liberal government and the booming construction phase within a short walk of this building, he would realise that he is being carried to a very large extent thanks to his colleagues on the hill.
The ACT has prospered. The construction industry has prospered. Our unemployment is now at the 2.5 per cent mark after these forecasts of gloom and doom by Mr Gentleman—the end of the barbecue and massive unemployment. None of it, of course, has come to pass. But despite this flood of money into the territory, we still cannot manage our affairs properly, as we see through successive health disasters under this administration.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (11.22): I am quite sure that members of the opposition do feel grave concern, but is it over the lack of competence of the Chief Minister or is it that they are the opposition and feel powerless from that position to affect policy and practices? I understand that frustration because from my lonely position on the crossbench I also find myself wanting to do something to make certain that things happen. If that is the spirit in which this motion is put, then I commend it, but I cannot help feeling that what we have again is the result perhaps of the Monday prior to our sitting—perhaps this germinated last week—when opposition members sat in their party room and thought, “What can we do to draw attention to ourselves now? What can we find to rub the government’s nose in?” Of course, there is always something.
If I have learnt anything in this place, it is that the government is in a position as vulnerable as it is strong. Since the last sitting week there have been some doozies as far as politics goes. For instance, we all know there was a tragic death in emergency. I think it is really sad that that tragic death has become a political football where certain aspects are highlighted and made capital of, but other aspects are totally ignored.
We have Anti-Poverty Week with its litany of shameful figures which have either worsened or remained static due to the action, or lack of it, by both the ACT and federal governments. But in Liberal hands these statistics become ammunition that is aimed solely at the ACT government. I know that that is the work of oppositions, but we are in a very interesting time now. We are in the second day of an official federal
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