Page 659 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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Mr Coe thinks it is not relevant for us to compare, in the context of cost-benefit, what is reasonable and what is reasonable in the context of imposition through rates, charges and taxes. Of course, Mr Coe did not go to the issue of how much more money the Liberal Party is prepared to spend on municipal maintenance. What is the position? When we were dealing with the previous motion I heard Mr Coe actually challenging Ms Le Couteur for daring to suggest that the government should expend additional funds on community gardens.
What Mr Coe has just indicated, without saying it, is that he believes the government should be spending more money on municipal services. He criticised Ms Le Couteur in the very last motion for doing precisely what he is now doing, suggesting that the $25 million we spend on horticultural maintenance and cleaning Canberra’s urban parks is not enough and he proposes we should spend more. How much more, Mr Coe? How much more than the $25 million? It is to go straight on the rates, I presume is your proposal. Is this actually a call for an increase in rates and charges, Mr Coe? We currently spend $25 million on horticultural maintenance, on cleaning parks, on open spaces, on public precincts and on the urban tree landscape. So you think it is not enough—we need to do more?
Mr Coe: We measure on outputs, not inputs.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope, one moment, please.
MR STANHOPE: He is just going to do it better. I see; he is going to do it better.
MR SPEAKER: One moment, please. Stop the clocks, thank you. Mr Coe, you were heard in absolute silence and I expect the same for Mr Stanhope.
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. So here is the hypocrisy. You challenge Ms Le Couteur for daring to suggest and for having the temerity to say—at least Ms Le Couteur said it—“I think we should spend more money on community gardens.” Mr Coe comes in, criticises everything that is done and then says, quite cutely, “It’s not about more money; it’s about doing it better.” In other words, those that are tasked with the mowing of the grass need to mow the grass better—those contractors that are out there are doing their best, working overtime, working seven days a week.
It is a quite slighting remark: “We’ll get a dissertation or lecture on the enormity of the task.” Over this summer it has been enormous—over 5,000 hectares. We have now, in terms of the repeat mows, mown over 46,000 hectares of our parks and our unleased land over this last summer. A total of 46,000 hectares of grass or land has been mown when one takes into account the repeat mows—a 32 per cent increase on last year. That is the reality of the enormity of the task. I think in the conditions, having regard to the way in which the grass has grown so remarkably strongly, not just for the first cut, but again for the second, again for the third and again for the fourth—and it is still growing—it is quite remarkable. We are into autumn and the grass is still growing and growing quite strongly. We have applied an additional $1 million and we have mown a number of additional times.
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