Page 4354 - Week 13 - Thursday, 11 December 2014
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adviser, as a member and as a minister working to ensure that our local services are high quality and that they are affordable for the community. It is right that our big focus is the big picture of jobs, health and education. It is also right that we never lose sight of the quality of local services and all the elements that make up a good local life. So service delivery must never be neglected. Regulations and approvals must always be modernised and improved. In coming days I will have much more to say about reform of this area of local administration.
Madam Speaker, one particular group in our community I am thinking of today are Mr Fluffy home owners. You have been through so much. Last Thursday this place passed the Appropriation (Loose-fill Asbestos Insulation Eradication) Bill so that we could act quickly to help those most affected. I can announce this morning that under the scheme many offers have now been made, and some have indeed been accepted. The process has begun.
This was a big bridge to cross, and I know some home owners have a hard road ahead. I will continue the Gallagher government’s approach to listening to home owners, being flexible and recognising the range of individual circumstances. I can assure you, you have not lost a Chief Minister who cares but you will gain a new senator who understands.
I urge the Assembly to respect both the human and economic dimensions of this genuinely difficult issue. There is simply no need to descend into a partisan argument. For my own part, as Chief Minister I will remain very conscious of the general good of the whole community as we support home owners in the coming time.
Madam Speaker, like many here, I remember our centenary in 2013 with such pride: the opening of the arboretum; the exhibitions of Toulouse-Lautrec and then Turner from the Tate; the longest bubbly bar in the world; the city to the lake; that last try against the Waratahs; that last scrum against the British and Irish Lions; the first visit here by the Australian cricket team; that long weekend weather, which would have been astonishing if it were not so absolutely routine. Think of the parties at the shops; all of those smiles. We know our city’s life cannot always be one long Canberra Day weekend. Eventually the time comes to get back to work. But what we can have with us is our pride in our accomplishment, the unity in our diversity, and the confidence in our future which overflowed on that March weekend—if we keep growing, if we stay strong.
In my first speech here eight years ago I said:
There is no point being in government if you cannot make people’s lives better. And you cannot do that if you are not paying attention to the economy. Good governments manage the economy responsibly, and that good management leads to benefits for all the community.
It was true then and it is true today. Canberra is more resilient and more independent at 101 years old than at any time in our past, and it is just as well.
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