Page 314 - Week 01 - Thursday, 27 February 2014
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That is what my report seeks to highlight, that there have been so many opportunities in the last decade that the government has failed to capitalise on. It is well and good for the Chief Minister to say, “I have got this portfolio called regional development. I do not know what to do with it; give us some ideas.” But clearly she did not even know what was going on within her own departments. When you look at the government’s own strategy it shows clearly how this government is out of touch—one, with what its department is doing and, two, with what is actually happening out there.
You only need to look at the number of things that they are engaged in. For instance, no clear advice was provided by the Chief Minister on the interplay between the strategy being developed and this committee’s finding. The government is working on the greater capital regional strategy. It was due to be finished by the end of 2013 but having put it in train I then asked whether there were there any deficiencies in what she expected from that report. She said that there were no deficiencies.
Then we asked whether there were other matters being currently handled with the greater capital regional strategy and the ACT-New South Wales land use and infrastructure plan. We asked whether the select committee inquiry was addressing any deficiencies in the two other concurrent initiatives. The Chief Minister responded, “I do not think there is anything deficient.”
We have got all these bodies doing all this work. We have got all this duplication and then the Chief Minister says, “We will get a committee to do it as well.” What is the point of having public servants doing this work? Is it a lack of faith in them? Is it a smokescreen to have a committee here? Or is it that the Chief Minister just did not actually know what was happening inside her own government?
The same can be applied to the other government regional initiatives that they list, which are the Regional Development Australia (ACT) Committee; the remaining elements of the ACT-New South Wales MOU for regional collaboration; the New South Wales Cross-Border Commissioner; the South-East Regional Organisation of Councils; individual councils that they talk to; the COAG Regional Australia Standing Council and the Canberra Urban and Regional Futures group.
We have all these things happening. No wonder they have not had anybody interested in being the minister for this because there is so much going on. The problem is that they are not doing anything with it. Really, what the select committee process uncovered has been the government’s mismanagement of the ACT’s regional engagement. As we say in the report, this is a result of duplication of initiatives leading to inconsistent outcomes, a lack of coherent definition of what the government means by the region and delays on taking action to address known regional issues affecting service delivery in the ACT.
I can go on. I could read the whole report. It is probably worth reading the whole report because, again, at lunch time I was lucky enough to be with some of the regional leaders from Cooma-Monaro and Bega. Again, they are waiting for the government to do something.
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