Page 2586 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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of additional bus capacity annually to be redistributed through the network as a result of light rail taking over the heavy lifting on Northbourne Avenue. If Mr Hanson takes light rail away he is going to have to fund that additional bus mileage. What we know is that the Liberal Party have issued a bus plan that has no time lines and no costings. Will it actually ever be delivered? I doubt it, because what we know is that the Liberal Party do not really believe in public transport.
We also know that Mr Coe has made it clear that interchanging is off the agenda. He does not believe in that when it comes to a public transport network. I think that is quite a giveaway because again that points to costings that are not in there and we have not seen anything. All we have is a long-term aspirational plan, or perhaps it is an initial proposal—no costings, no time line, no plan for delivery.
It is not unlike the education spend that Mr Hanson spoke of this morning. My comments last night indicate that real questions need to be answered on that. Here is what is happening from the Liberal Party: they are actually allocating money that is already in the national education reform agreement funding. It is actually not new money; it is money that they are actually going to dictate to the non-government schools how they have to spend it. If that is the policy change, they need to outline that. They need to be honest about it.
If it is extra money, does that mean they are now going beyond the terms of the national education reform agreement and pouring even more money into non-government schools at the expense of government schools? Is that the policy position? Which is it? Let us have some honesty about which policy decision the Liberal Party are actually putting forward. At the moment it is just: “Hey, look at us. We are going to fling this money around.” Let us hear what the actual policy proposal is. Let us hear what it is. I look forward to Mr Hanson responding to that in his reply this morning.
When it comes to the promise today on the Canberra Hospital, I will be looking very closely at this. The announcement today is not clear on the capital works that are currently underway at the hospital or have already been completed. Does the fact that the emergency department just had some works finalised, and has got other works coming, mean that this one is now going to be simply discarded again for a couple of years? Is that the approach? Are we actually going to see the cancellation of more contracts for work that is already underway at the hospital? It is no longer needed under this new proposal. They are questions that need to be worked through as well and I will take the time to look carefully at this. I also can flag to the chamber that the Greens Party will also come with a range of health policies and issues during this election.
What we know is that this budget already invests large amounts of money into both health and education spending. I think what we are seeing here are quite fluffy policies coming out. This again goes to the very dishonesty of the narrative that the Liberal Party are running through this election campaign, completely failing to recognise the significant work that has already been put into these areas and the fact that there is significant investment being put into health and education by this government. We will carefully look through this and outline to the Canberra community the true story behind some of these claims that are being made by the Liberal Party.
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