Page 1428 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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economic activity to this town,” what is Mr Barr saying in his amendment? He calls on us to advocate for federal government support.
So once again you have a government that is trying to squib the responsibility. Mr Barr and Ms Gallagher are refusing to acknowledge that they have got to do some work and have got to make some investment if this project is going to get going. If this project is going to get the support from the federal government that we all want to see, then they have got to take something to the federal government that they can actually support.
But instead of acknowledging, “Yes, we did not do our homework, we have not done the work that we promised that we would do, that the Canberra Liberals called on us to do last year,” what does Mr Barr’s amendment say? “Go back to the feds.” Mr Barr needs to acknowledge that the feds are going to continually say to him, “Andrew, you have not done your homework.” That is what they have said this time and that is what they will repeatedly say if this government does not do the work. So this ACT government need to take on the responsibility, fulfil the promises that they have made and have put into their Greens-Labor agreement and actually start investing some money to make sure that the shovel-ready plan is there so that we can then get the investment to make this project a reality.
There is a blame game going on here and the version that Katy Gallagher and Andrew Barr would have you believe is that this is all the federal government’s fault. Be it the convention centre or everything else, it is all Tony Abbott’s fault. Let me debunk some of those myths. I have made the point that the reason that we did not get the funding for the convention centre was as a result of this government’s inaction.
Andrew Barr is saying that the federal budget will devastate our local community. Does he believe that? Talk about talking this town down! We are trying to attract investment. We are trying to reassure the community that we have got a strong, vibrant economy that will weather this budget and we will come back stronger. That should be the message. That is what Kate Carnell did. She got on with the job. She made sure that this town came out better, bigger and stronger.
But what do we see from this Treasurer? What he is doing is crying about the fact that he did not get the investment for the convention centre because he did not do his homework. And he is saying—and it is a disgusting thing for a treasurer of this territory to be saying—that the federal government is going to devastate our local community. How negative! What a shocker! Does he believe that? Does he really think that?
I know it is different from what Ms Gallagher has been saying. I thought she was saying that this is not going to have a big impact, that we have got a vigorous economy. I read some of her comments in The Canberra Times that were actually more measured. I acknowledge that they were more measured. She did not see this as the end of the free world. She did not see this as the end of Canberra.
But for cheap political purposes, for dirty, grubby, little politics to try to play the blame game—and I can see what is happening here—to try to excuse Andrew Barr’s
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