Page 2532 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
they cannot afford to run that business in this town because Mr Barr is more concerned with his high-end dinner, his $100 delicious luxury cuisine and his sparkling mineral water.
It seems that when it comes to being in connection with Canberrans and understanding the issues that they are going through, the only workers that this mob talk to are their mates in the CFMEU. While we are out there talking to average Canberrans about what they need, this executive is directed by—and in many ways influenced by, shaped by and, financially and in terms of controlling policy and controlling much of the Labor Party, at the behest of—the CFMEU. As long as Mr Barr is getting his high-end dinner, perhaps occasionally forgoing his sparkling mineral water, and as long as he is getting his tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, from his mates in the CFMEU, he is happy. It allows them to pursue their ideological dreams.
Mr Rattenbury is complicit in all this, of course. They are sipping their mineral water in their high-end restaurant whilst the rest of Canberrans are struggling to think about their light rail project. If anything expresses the indulgence, the misdirection and the obsession with their own ideas rather than what matters to Canberrans, it is this light rail project. As you and I know, Madam Speaker, all across this town people are scratching their heads and wondering why a government can get so out of touch that they are pursuing a project that is going to cost, you have got to say, a billion dollars. The government is putting letters out saying that it is going to be a billion dollars. We know that there is $50 million alone in this budget for light rail. How can that be?
We have an executive led by a Chief Minister who is grossly out of touch. As long as they are getting what they want, as long as the CFMEU are getting what they want and as long as they can get to have their swanky meals in their swanky restaurants, they do not mind. They do not really care if your rates are tripling. They do not really care if you have to pay more for parking. They do not even care, it would seem, about stamp duty. It is a bit ambiguous now whether Mr Barr is really committed to that or not; I hope that becomes clearer as this debate goes on.
The economic strategy being pursued to pay for all of this, to manage all of this, is just to put it on the credit card. We now have the most significant, biggest, record debt and deficit that this territory has ever faced. Compare our deficit with the rest of the states. Look over the border to New South Wales. Look at the Baird Liberal government and what they have been able to achieve, with budget surpluses, to turn that economy around after the disaster of New South Wales Labor. What we have in the ACT is deficit after deficit. Of course, what we do have is the magical surplus that appears at the end of the period, Wayne Swan-esque—the surplus that will never happen, we know, unless there is a change of government.
Mr Barr is backing himself in, as we know. What we have seen from the executive, the way the executive works and the way the government has been structured is that all roads now lead to the Chief Minister. We have seen this massive increase in his directorate. We have seen that his finger is in every pie. We have seen a taking away of power and control, and to some extent you can understand why, from ministers like Ms Burch, Ms Berry and others to get control into the Chief Minister’s directorate.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video