Page 1418 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
million dollars—Ms Gallagher might write it off, saying, “It’s is only a couple million dollars,” but then there is the $10 million and then there is the $20 million and of course there is the $240 million—does add up. It is reckless spending and it does have consequences. You cannot blame it on the GFC, and you cannot blame it on the Grants Commission, and you cannot blame it on everyone else, as you would like to. They are your decisions; they are the failure to manage your departments and your government’s agencies.
The Ernst & Young report into TAMS talks again about the failure to manage, the lack of oversight. The document reveals a lack of financial discipline and says that management have limited visibility of the activities performed within the department and that the financial systems appear not to rigorously adhere to core financial management requirements, and cost allocation is not transparent. Now, tell me, Treasurer—the Treasurer has stopped interjecting, I must point out—was that lack of financial discipline a result of the global financial crisis?
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: You would not be encouraging the Treasurer to be disorderly?
MR SESELJA: No I am not. Was it due the financial crisis? Was it due to the Grants Commission? Was it due to the commonwealth government? No, it was due to your government having a lack of financial discipline and not putting in place the rigour. That is why we lost millions of dollars from not collecting rates. That is why we lost $5 million on FireLink, $5 million on the busway and hundreds of thousands of dollars on your propaganda. We see the blow-outs on the GDE, we see the blow-outs on Tharwa bridge, we see the blow-outs on the dam. That is not someone else’s fault. You cannot blame others for that. We, as Canberrans, will pay the price for that. We will be paying more in taxes; we will be seeing less in services. As always under this government, we will be paying more and getting less. You, Treasurer, need to take responsibility for that.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (4.29): I do not think there is anyone in the ACT who actually thinks that services are getting better. Madam Assistant Speaker Dunne, as a member for Ginninderra, you would know how many people in Belconnen contact our offices complaining about service delivery. You would know how many people object to the way the ACT Stanhope government treat the ACT community with contempt. They do it at every single step of the government process. They show contempt in their raising of money, they show contempt when they are supposedly discussing how they are going to spend the money, they show contempt when they are spending the money and then they show contempt in trying to sell what they have done.
You only need to look at some of the big ticket items of any other government—any government anywhere in the world. They should be able to have a grand launch of the Gungahlin Drive extension and say, “This is the best road.” They should be able to go to Tharwa bridge for a photo op every other month. They should be able to do this over and over again, but they cannot. Why? Because they are symbols of just how bad this government is, especially when it comes to capital works.
Earlier today and yesterday in question time we spoke about capital works and how much money has been underspent in the capital works area. In 2001-02, the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video