Page 2250 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008

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on time, on budget. But we did have another one that was a significant one. I think the minister sitting opposite may have had to pick up the pieces for this one. I think that was the promise not to close any schools: “We will not close any schools in the next term of government.” That was the promise. They promised not to close schools—they closed 23. They promised to build a pool—they did not deliver. They promised to deliver to the people of Gungahlin a road, on time, on budget—they delivered half the road for twice the cost.

This is a government that cannot be trusted in the delivery of infrastructure. They cannot be trusted to deliver on their core promises. The people of the ACT will have a very clear choice. They will look not to what this government say, not to the promises they make in the lead-up to this election, because they will be making promises left, right, and centre—you can guarantee it. Left, right and centre we will be hearing about all the wonderful things that they are going to deliver. But they have not been able to deliver. They have not kept their word. They have not kept their promises.

Nowhere is that more evident than when you drive along the Gungahlin Drive extension, particularly at peak hours, and you see the traffic jams. You see the people of Gungahlin once again being taken for granted. They have not had the kind of service delivery that they deserve. They have not had the kind of infrastructure delivery that they deserve. They are a portion of the community that is in many ways doing it tough. These are young families. These are people who have paid a lot to live in their homes. These are people who are servicing very large mortgages, balancing work and family, and they are forced to sit in traffic jams for longer than they should—because this government could not get it done. They are forced to spend more time away from their families—because this government could not get it done.

When we review the time of the Stanhope government, Gungahlin Drive and the failure to deliver properly will go down as one in the long list of failures, one in the long list of broken promises, from this government. They are a government that have shown themselves incapable of having the vision to deliver for the people. They are constantly involved in the stopgap. Their infrastructure plan is one of patching up and catching up, and the people of the ACT have woken up to them—and the people of Gungahlin, who have been severely let down by this government, have woken up to them. They have woken up to their promises and their broken promises, and they will not believe them when the promises start coming thick and fast in the months leading up to the next election.

MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations) (3.54): I thank members who have contributed to the debate on this particular section of the budget. We have heard and now know the Liberal Party’s views on a range of these matters. I thank the Greens and the Canberra Party for their views.

Mr Speaker, I thought that it would be interesting to share with the Assembly some of the views of some of the other stakeholders, most particularly in tourism and sport and recreation, and their observations of the budget. The first group is ACTSport, the peak industry body for sport and recreation in the ACT. What was their view on the ACT budget? They said:


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