Page 3972 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007

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MR PRATT: Thank you very much. I table the following paper.

Tharwa Bridge over Murrumbidgee River on Tharwa Drive, South of Canberra—Concept price, prepared by the RTA Bridge Works Manager, Wagga.

This is evidence that will show how much of a failure this minister is. Thank you very much. We now see that Mr Stanhope has to step in to—

Mr Corbell: Remember to bang the fist as well, Steve. Your voice is deep and it has got—

MR PRATT: I will speak gently for your poor sensitive ears, Simon, if that is what you would prefer.

Mr Barr: You are such a caring soul.

Mr Corbell: Bang the bench too, Steve.

MR PRATT: Perhaps you could follow your comments and go upstairs too. We have now seen Mr Stanhope stepping in to rescue another failed Hargreaves project—another failed Hargreaves project. You have disadvantaged that community. Now that community has spent two years in an uncertain position about its bridge. That community has been put through two years in general and 18 months in particular of unnecessary pain—unnecessary pain because this minister failed to make the right decisions based on the appropriate evidence which was available at the time. And now we see his Chief Minister making a backflip on his behalf.

Let us talk about some of these other issues. There is the Grassby statue. This minister did not consult with anybody; he just talked to his Labor mates. And after talking to his Labor mates, he spent $75,000 from the public purse to build a statue that this city did not need. This city did not need any more statues. It does not matter whether it was Al Grassby or—

Mrs Dunne: A bogong moth.

MR PRATT: A bogong moth—or even the hair crop statue at the other end of the GDE. These are monuments that the ACT does not need. That money has got to be spent on more important identities. This reflects the failure of this minister—that he will waste money on Labor Party, iconic, ideological issues.

There has been a litany of failures. Let me remind you of this minister’s failure to do anything about the Braddon depot smeared in graffiti. I show you the before photograph and I show you the after photograph—eight weeks apart: same graffiti; no change. I seek leave to table these.

Leave granted.

MR PRATT: Thank you. I table the following papers:

Graffiti in Braddon—

City Scape Depot—Photos (4).


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