Page 2211 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2016
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Canberra Liberals had virtually no public transport policies, and in 2016 they claim to want to deliver lines on a map. You cannot trust the Canberra Liberals on public transport.
Certainly the man who would like to be Treasurer has still not costed his own bus policy. No costings have been provided. And on the day the plan was announced Mr Coe told the ABC that he had not done any modelling on how many people would actually use the Canberra Liberals’ buses. This is not sound economic policy or good policy planning.
Canberra Liberals also want to scrap the popular city loop service and replace it with a tourist route that would take at least an hour. Again, there is no modelling on how many people will actually use this service and patronage figures would already be under what the current City Loop service is operating; not sound policy.
Canberra deserves high quality infrastructure, public services and secure jobs. Canberra deserves a government that plans for our very exciting future. Canberrans deserve to trust their government to deliver on its promises.
MR HINDER (Ginninderra) (12.18), in reply: I would like to thank all members for their contributions to this debate. Much was made of this scare campaign that I heard heckling about during my motion. I do not believe that I need to run any scare campaign. I think the prospect of a Hanson government is reason enough for economists, businesses, Canberrans and voters here in Canberra to be frightened. We ought to be afraid, because it is the nature of Liberal governments to cut jobs and services. Every conservative government does it. We have already felt the brunt of the federal Abbott and Turnbull cuts in this town.
Let us have a look at all of the state Liberal governments that have come to power and have a look at their record on cuts to public sector jobs. Just look at New South Wales. The Baird Liberal government cut 10,000 jobs. In Queensland the Newman Liberal government cut 12,800 jobs. In Victoria the Bailey-Napthine Liberal government cut 4,200 jobs. In WA the Barnett Liberals cut 1,000 jobs. This is because they have no economic experience. The only tool they seem to have in their economic toolbox is cuts.
Why do they need to cut? They need to cut to pay out a $400 million black hole they are going to create by ripping up the light rail contract and for all of the promises they made to everybody to supply everything in their quest to become the next government of the ACT.
There will not be any $1.78 billion black hole because it is an illusion. The $1.78 billion is an illusion. It does not exist. The contract we have signed is for something like $700 million. The $1.78 billion that those on the other side keep talking about is if you add up every dollar we are going to spend over 20 years. It is not real. It is an illusion. Or is it a lie?
This scare campaign seems to be coming from the Canberra Liberals, not from our side of—
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