Page 3397 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 14 November 2007
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direct funding to neglected programs. That is the reality. However, we will be critical. The government has squandered the opportunity to provide tax breaks, because it is forced to play catch-up and plug the gaps that it has created through the last five years of economic and governance neglect.
The opposition refuses to be put off seeking to cut back on taxation. That is why Mr Mulcahy has introduced this repeal bill here today. We believe that we can deliver tax cuts and concurrently maintain responsible government program expenditure. That is the difference between Liberal and Labor in this place. That is the fundamental point of difference between the opposition and the government. We will always seek to put money back in people’s pockets. Why? Because it empowers people to be that much more independent. We can also spend on sensible government services responsibly and cut taxes—versus the government’s dismal failure to govern. The government waste their expenditure, run down services and never deliver tax cuts. Unlike the Chief Minister, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Why can’t Jon Stanhope walk and chew gum at the same time? Because he is continually cleaning up the mess left behind by his ministers.
Look at the litany of failures that do not allow Mr Stanhope to deliver tax cuts. Look at the litany: Gungahlin Drive extension; closed schools; FireLink; the trunk radio network; other communications programs in emergency services; the Fairbairn relocation debacle; Tharwa Bridge; Pialligo Avenue; the Albert Hall; Griffith Library; Red Hill shops; the Grassby statue; graffiti on the CityScape depot and everywhere else through Braddon; and the busway failed experiment. And then there are those little programs dear to Mr Stanhope’s heart—his own examples of wastage and monuments to himself: the arboretum and the GDE artworks.
Let me point out why the Chief Minster cannot deliver tax cuts—as we would if we were in his shoes. Let me point out a couple of activities that he has had to fund in the second appropriation. It is the Stanhope government that has systematically destroyed fundamental services in the ACT. It is this government that pared back our public transport services to an almost unworkable position.
The government’s failure to maintain fundamental services such as the public transport system is the reason we do not see any tax relief for overtaxed ACT residents. It would be the right thing to do to return some of this windfall to taxpayers—who have endured the necessary pain, you would think. If you believe Mr Stanhope’s spin, you would believe it; you would see it. Taxpayers have endured the pain of the slash-and-burn budget of 2006 and the accompanying rationalisation which saw a cut in services. This could happen with the support of the utilities repeal bill.
The Stanhope government is forever playing catch-up. The extra taxes imposed during the reign of this government have facilitated this latest round of catch-up. What about the government’s announcements yesterday? The second appropriation listed a bunch of programs which were not considered important three months ago. The TWU has even considered that the $75 million directed to ACTION is the government fixing up its own stuff-up. That is in today’s Canberra Times. The ACT was left with the skeletal remains of the 2006 ACTION bus timetable as a result of the
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