Page 2245 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
the federal Liberal Party. It was done in 2006. It is called the Griffin legacy. The variation to the national capital plan has been done to allow that. That has been on the books for about six years, consistent with this government and their record. It would actually be a transformation if they did something. It would actually be a transformation if we got an outcome out of this. That would be quite spectacular.
Subparagraph (iii) of the motion states:
provides funding to progress with important capital projects such as Capital Metro and City to the Lake that will transform the city;
They will transform the city to the lake, but you still have to have your city plan, which we are waiting for. Twelve years without a plan for the city is quite disgraceful and most unfortunate. Subparagraph (iv) states:
continues the Government’s nation-leading taxation reforms and delivers a series of structural reforms that will be made to the Territory Budget to make the operation of government more efficient;
That should actually read, “To give us the ability to spend more money.” That is what this is about. It is about fuelling their urge to spend. Labor governments measure their progress by how much they spend. We heard it yesterday: “This is the biggest budget. We are spending more on education.” Education and health budgets very rarely go backwards. It is not that much of a great achievement to continue the trend that you have had for the last 12 years. Have you delivered better outcomes? Are people happier with the system? What are we up to in terms of plans for the emergency department and addressing the waiting lists? Is this plan 9 to address that or is it plan 10? There are so many plans now that are done over and over again because they cannot manage the system properly. That is why it does not work. Labor cannot manage. The motion goes on to state:
returns to a balanced budget in a measured way, to ensure we can continue to provide high quality services and invest in the infrastructure that will transform our city;
Let us talk about the balanced budget. Let us talk about the Treasurer and the internal contradiction that we have in this budget. The Treasurer says that we have a very strong economy. But our budget is deeply in deficit. If the economy is so strong, why is the budget so bad? It is because of your spending. It is because of your inability to deliver. It is because of your tax policy.
Let us look at the lease variation charge, the lease variation tax. It was to be this huge windfall but it would not affect the market; it would not affect the price of land; it would not affect the cost of rent. But it has done all three of those things, all at a time when the market was softening.
Of course, we have got 4,800 blocks coming on to the market. Let me see. We are told, “Tony Abbott is going to ruin the ACT economy,” but in that same period, “I’m going to sell all these blocks of land. My revenue goes up by $1 billion over the next four years.” It is his budget. This man has budgeted, Wayne Swan-like, for revenue that he
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video