Page 88 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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In and of themselves, each one of these probably does not sound like such a big deal, but what happens when you look at the cumulative effect, be it from visiting a GP, your water bill, your electricity bill, your rent, your rates or childcare prices and so on? Your collective bill means that at the end of the week many struggling families here in the ACT have got nothing left. What they see is this government with spending priorities that are unaligned with their own priorities. They see a government that is focused on arboretums, on pet projects, on roadside art and on jails, rather than on measures that could alleviate some of the cost of living pressures that they are facing.
It seems that this is a government that is driven by ideology, be it with the 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emission targets that it is chasing, and the unknown costs that that is going to place on Canberra families, or the drive to ban plastic bags, which is absolutely nonsensical. Talk to anybody: everybody uses their plastic bags as bin liners. It is a nonsensical policy. That is just another measure. People say that it is only 5c a bag or whatever it may be, but by the time you add the cumulative effect of that and all the other measures again, it is about this government pursuing an ideological agenda over prioritising reducing the cost of living pressures on Canberra’s families.
No doubt the Greens will have something to say about this. They will probably bang on about peak oil. It seems that their response—they were talking about it in question time today, but this is something that the people have been talking about since I think the early 1970s—is peak oil. I look forward to how they weave that into their narrative on looking after the families of Canberra and how we can reduce their cost of living pressures. It is quite clear that, just as the Labor Party is getting out of touch when it comes to cost of living pressures, so are the Greens. We have the scramble by the new Mike Hettinger of the Labor Party, Simon Corbell—Mr Monergy—to try and be the greenest that he can, to out-green Mr Rattenbury.
When it comes to middle income families, they are facing extraordinary pressures. It is important that we recognise in this place that there are people that are doing it very hard at the bottom end of society, and there are people who are doing quite well at the top, but for the vast bulk of Canberrans in the middle the cost of living pressures brought about by the policies of this government are hurting them badly.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Women) (4.40): I welcome the opportunity to discuss cost of living pressures in the ACT through this matter of public importance today. I think we have just heard the leadership-type speech from Mr Hanson, surrounded by all his followers—none. No-one is here to listen to it from his own side, but it was the usual Mr Hanson. I had hoped that there had been some progress over the long summer break, but no. It was full of the barbs and nastiness that we experienced last year—swipes at me for having a holiday in France that I saved up for myself. All very nice! The Assembly has not grown up, and it is pretty sad that in our 21st year we are still dealing with these kinds of bottom-of-the-barrel attacks from Mr Hanson, but we will continue to expect that.
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