Page 2972 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Online, where the Chief Minister is reported as saying: “We, the ACT Labor Government, accept that it”—that is, the great big new office block—“needs a lot of scrutiny from the community before it gets to the detailed design and final decision. But this budget, the appropriation bill only appropriates I think $1 million for the new office block.”
Where do all these comments from our new Chief Minister leave us in the ACT community? I think “confused” would be a good start. On the one hand, the committee asked too many questions. On the other hand, she says it needs a lot of scrutiny from the community before it gets to the detailed design and final decision. So it is an interesting place to be.
I would like to reiterate the point that this is the biggest single infrastructure project proposed for the ACT by an ACT government, at more than $430 million. I do not think anyone has any confidence at all that this government, given their record of not delivering on time, on scope, on budget, will deliver this project on time, on scope and on budget. It must be scrutinised at a level commensurate with it being such a potentially large project.
The Chief Minister then said that the government had been open and transparent about this project, yet she criticised the estimates committee for its scrutiny. And there you have the inconsistency. The Chief Minister also said that the budget only has something like a million dollars for this project. It is actually half a million dollars this first year.
It is important, I think, given that we are not in surplus, to scrutinise every dollar. I made several offers during the estimates committee that we would stay longer to ask more questions about all sorts of interesting areas but I was quite taken aback that none of the ministers took that offer up. And it is a shame really. You can always ask more questions. I assume that members prioritise their questions, as I do. I think it was interesting that so many members came to the same conclusion that this project needs further scrutiny.
I think it is probably the largest single number of recommendations on an issue in an estimates report in the 20-odd year history of the ACT. I agree with the Chief Minister at least on one thing: the community does need to scrutinise this project more.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (11.41): Of course within the debate on the Treasury Directorate we consider both the specific outputs of the directorate as well as the more general fiscal position that has been adopted by the budget. So I first turn to the specific outputs for the Treasury Directorate. I would like to make the observation that the tax review panel will be reporting very soon and this will of course be very important for the future direction of the tax system within the ACT. We know the Henry tax review had some very interesting recommendations on state taxes, and the Greens very much support the initiative to assess those recommendations and evaluate the applicability to the unique circumstances here in the ACT.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video