Page 796 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 27 February 2013
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Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR RATTENBURY: There you go: I won the bet; I said it would take less than 15 seconds. They basically take what is a perfectly understood concept and make it something else. This motion is a blatant example of adversarial politicking and it has been quite unedifying for the chamber this morning. It does nothing for the people of Canberra.
I am quite comfortable, and in fact proud, about talking about wanting to deliver green and progressive policies in the territory. These are the sorts of things that will build a better future for our city—things like improved transport, a cleaner environment and looking after those that are most vulnerable in our community. Many people in Canberra like the things that are delivered under the parliamentary agreement between the Greens and the Labor Party. The sorts of things that are in that are the start of a light rail network for Canberra and cleaning up our lakes so that people can start to use them again. If that is an extremist agenda, I think that Mr Hanson is sadly out of touch with so many people in the community who want to see our lakes and waterways cleaned up. Another—
Mr Hanson: Eight times the carbon emissions tax, eight times the national emissions tax.
MR RATTENBURY: I am just coming to that. Another one is significant action on climate change—a 40 per cent reduction by 2020. It is not much past the 30 per cent promise that the Liberal Party made last term before they decided that it was more politically expedient to take cheap shots about not doing something serious on the issue.
The parliamentary agreement includes serious action on homelessness. I think universally it is understood that that is something that needs to be done. Certainly the census figures that came out in November last year, just after the election, underline the importance of tackling homelessness. That is part of a progressive and green agenda. If Mr Hanson has got a problem with that, he needs to go out and tell that to the Canberra community in an open and transparent way.
What about funding and implementation for the Gonski education reforms? Yes, that is part of our agenda as well, to ensure that we have an equitable and sustainable system of education funding going forward. These are the sorts of things that the parliamentary agreement covers, that the Greens and the Labor Party have signed up to deliver together over the next four years. That is the sort of agenda that we are talking about. I think that is an agenda that a great many people in Canberra are supportive of and that really delivers for the future of this city.
The Greens are a party that has grown through putting new ideas on the agenda—ideas like climate change that other parties often start addressing years or even decades later. These are the sorts of issues that come up out of academic research and community imagination. They are progressive ideas that help move us forward as a society. Of course, we are accustomed to attracting ire for some of these big ideas,
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