Page 2188 - Week 06 - Thursday, 26 June 2008
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Whilst the government and its agencies were quietly working away, the residents of the northern Tuggeranong and southern Woden valleys did not have a bloody clue; they had no idea whatsoever, and of course these were the views that were expressed and re-expressed again yesterday during that rally. We congratulate the CPSR, as they call themselves—the residents for no power station.
What the government now have to really have a good look at and a really good hard think about is this: with the scaled down project, the 28 megawatts—and do not forget the 14-megawatt No 3 turbine sitting there in reserve—how far can you go now with this 18-hectare data centre proposal, part of the scaled down project, with the same vacant footprint where initially it was planned to put the other 170-odd megawatts of peaking power station?
Having bruised the community so deeply by not taking them into their confidence, how well can the government continue to sell the current scaled down proposal? As we have said here on this side of the house, we now look at the impending health assessment into the data centre. We will have a good look at how that evolves. We will have a good think about the viability of that project sitting, still, 600 metres from Macarthur, and then we will see what we see. But we have to be extremely sceptical about the viability of this project given the lack of trust demonstrated by the government.
Ms Gallagher is over there, laughing away. She pretends that she had little knowledge about this project or what its likely impacts might have been on that community, not just the Tharwa community. Let the record show that the Minister for Health is chortling away here. She thinks that this is a great joke. She has not bothered to take the community into her confidence with this. Majority government for the health minister and the cockatoo Mr Corbell over there means that you can thumb your nose—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Address the member by his proper title, please.
MR PRATT: Okay, for Mr Corbell, the manager of government business, aiding and abetting the covering up of a $2 billion project is all a great joke. You do not have to take the community into your confidence, do you? You just ram these things through, because you do not care about the community. (Time expired.)
Health Care Consumers Association
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (11:46): Something I wanted to mention in my speech earlier today, which I did not get around to or have a chance to do, was to congratulate the Health Care Consumers Association. They just chip away and chip away and they never really seem to be listened to. That is a real pity because what Russell McGowan said during the estimates committee hearing was that he welcomed planned expenditure on health infrastructure, which is what we have said on this side of the house too. I quote from the estimates committee report:
At the hearing, the Health Care Consumers’ Association welcomed planned expenditure on health infrastructure but reiterated their previously expressed
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