Page 216 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 December 2008

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MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (3.17), in reply: I would like to welcome and thank the other members of the Assembly for their support for this motion. I would just like to echo the views of Mr Corbell that we do need to continue to advocate on a national level for national human rights laws and that this would obviously better entrench the principles which are outlined in the UDHR.

As Mr Hargreaves and Mrs Dunne also noted, there will be a discussion happening now nationally through the human rights panel. Also, as Mrs Dunne noted, it is all very well to have legislation but we still need to make sure we are vigilant and that we have processes in place which do look at the culture in our society and make sure that those principles in law are followed.

As the opposition leader, Mr Seselja, also noted, we need to have the political will to act on human rights abuses. As we speak here today, human rights abuses occur on a large scale across the world. I believe we have an obligation, no matter where the abuses occur, to take responsibility for that. And parliaments all around the world must follow their words with strong actions.

Motion agreed to.

Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services

MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.18): I move:

That this Assembly calls on the Chief Minister to table the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services in the Assembly before the end of this sitting day.

I am moving this motion today because the people of the ACT deserve to know what is contained in the functional review that was conducted in 2006. The continual lack of transparency displayed by the Stanhope-Gallagher government over the last term has caused distrust and a lack of confidence in our system of governance. This document is at the heart of that distrust.

There is a list of actions taken as a result of this review, actions that the people of the ACT are still scratching their heads about. They have been left in the lurch, treated like children, not told the rationale for these actions. These actions in the period after the functional review was released include but were certainly not limited to the closure of 23 government schools, disbandment of the sustainability expert reference group, cuts to numerous advisory bodies, huge cuts to the ACTION bus network, dropping the employer superannuation contributions from 15.4 per cent to nine per cent, cuts to tourism, increases in rates and taxes, cuts to business assistance programs, abolishing the Emergency Services Authority, indexing rates by WPI rather than CPI, reducing sports grounds.

These are just some of the measures of the 2006 horror budget, a horror budget the Chief Minister said was necessary. Frankly, we have to take his word for it because the document, the review that the horror budget was based on, has never, ever been


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