Page 1981 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 May 2013
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(ix) not to re-introduce a Higher Education Amenities Fee;
(b) the significant waste which has occurred as a result of the financially reckless Federal Labor Government, including, but not limited to:
(i) an immigration budget blowout of $6.6 billion in the last four years;
(ii) the National Broadband Network being over budget by at least $8.7 billion and $20 million spent on solely advertising the network;
(iii) over $69 million being spent on advertising the Carbon Tax and $1 million spent on researching the effectiveness of this advertising;
(iv) $150 million being spent on spin doctors to sell Labor’s policies; and
(v) an average of $6.1 million a month on chartering flights to move asylum seekers between overcrowded detention centres; and
(c) that the ACT Government put back delivering the ACT Budget from May to June to ensure the effects of the Federal Budget can be incorporated into the ACT Budget; and
(2) calls on the Government to detail in the 2013-14 Budget the full impact of the sixth Federal Labor budget on the ACT.
Yesterday was a great publishing day in Australia. Of course the federal budget was published, a mighty tome and, for those that haunt bookshops like I do, the new Dan Brown novel called Inferno came out. Dan Brown, of course, is the author of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. One is a complete work of fiction. It is full of speculation, misrepresentation and distortions. The other is a novel that will actually spend many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and will be very successful. One brings a great deal of pain to the ACT. The other will bring people pleasure and enjoyment.
It is unfortunate that yet again we have to have a motion like this about the federal government, its budgets, its spending and its attitude to the ACT, and it is a shame that the Chief Minister said at the convention centre this morning, “This is a tough budget for our government and for our budget which we are finalising. It is tough for our businesses. It is tough for Canberra workers, for the public servants that have had their jobs go and for the efficiencies that can be made.”
Yes, it is a tough budget and it is an unnecessary budget because it follows the mismanagement of the economy. It follows the mismanagement of the budget and it follows the mismanagement of the spending of this federal government. And it follows six years of broken promises, lies and distortions from a government that cannot keep its word. You only have to look at some of the items outlined in the motion that I have moved to see that. The problem was to actually cull it down. This could have been a four- or five-page motion.
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