Page 588 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 11 February 2009
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capital works program that has been delivered since 2001-02, and it is enormous—the programs, the works and the projects that have been delivered. Mr Seselja, in his opening address, said that there had been no city-building infrastructure delivered over this term of government. I dispute that; the facts dispute that. With respect to the projects that have been built, I can refer to the childcare centres, the medical school, the operating theatres, the medical records areas, the community facilities, the child and family centres, the new schools, the jail, and the youth detention centre. That is off the top of my head, without even going to the 15 pages of capital works infrastructure that is being delivered.
When we look back at Mr Smyth’s government’s legacy, what was it? The airport hangar, Bruce stadium and the futsal slab. Well, what massive investments in our city’s community infrastructure they were—all great achievements! They are the three things that jump out as the massive capital works projects that those opposite delivered. Not childcare centres, not schools, not medical facilities, not community facilities; none of those were provided for. And we have 15 pages of works that are being delivered. We have record levels of investment at a time when we need to be investing in our community. And what do we have from the opposition? Sniping and whining from the sideline. No ideas, nothing positive to contribute to the debate, no ideas about community building infrastructure projects that they would like to see. There is nothing like that, just harping and whining from the sidelines. I imagine that is all we are going to get from them for the next four years.
I foreshadowed an amendment to Mr Seselja’s motion, and I think that has been circulated. I will speak to that amendment now. The amendment essentially keeps the flavour of Mr Seselja’s motion alive and well. Firstly, we note the significant spending on capital works projects as part of the Rudd stimulus package. We note the critical issue of undertaking these capital works projects within tight time frames. Secondly, we note that the ACT government will provide a report to the Legislative Assembly on the implementation plans for the nation building and jobs package once the bill has been passed by the federal Senate. I think that is a sensible way forward. It means that we will be providing to members of the Assembly and, through them, to the community appropriate information. And let us dare to seek a collaborative approach to this in times when we do need to work together, when we need to look after our community’s interests.
We are more than happy to provide members of the Assembly with all the information that we can to be helpful in the jobs that they need to do in their electorates and having regard to their own work responsibilities. At the same time, if we are going to be providing all of that information, how about if we have a little bit of a spirit of cooperation on it as well, instead of the antics we saw in question time yesterday? I was unclear about what you were trying to achieve yesterday in question time but I will keep mulling that over. Instead of whining about the information you have got, let us look at genuinely working together. This is a new Assembly. We have all said that it is a new Assembly, and we all want to work together and be nice. We have not seen too much evidence of that yet, but it is only the second sitting week of the new Assembly so we can live in hope.
We stand here and say to you that we will provide you with as much information as we can in order to be helpful, and we look forward to you working with us on the
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