Page 3588 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017
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commonwealth that lies behind the ACT’s economic performance and its average incomes which are so high. The only challenge the Treasurer has faced is how to get his hands on the money and, of course, the subsequent waste. How to get hold of the money is simple enough: increase revenue from rates and land taxes and lease variation charges and anything else that extracts money from people who simply want to live in our city.
This motion trumpets the government’s tax reforms which have resulted in the recent savage rates increases that have caused such harm to the people of the ACT and which will snowball in the coming years unless the government finally puts the brakes on this unfair regime. I will be dealing with this later in the day in a motion listed on the notice paper.
This motion also trumpets the government’s ability to successfully deliver infrastructure. Let us examine a few recent examples—and the Cotter Dam springs to mind. That is a project that the government said in 2008 would cost $145 million. By 2013 that figure had blown out to more than $400 million, and it finished up at about $410 million. There were a whole host of issues, and we know that Andrew Barr was warned about the cost blowouts before going ahead with the project. Importantly, at the time the project was called in, I believe by Mr Barr as the planning minister, the project was in the vicinity of $145 million publicly, but privately I gather they knew it was more like $360 million.
The Gungahlin Drive extension is yet another infrastructure project emblematic of this government’s management. For years, motorists commuting to and from Gungahlin spent time in the GDE car park. It was a single lane road originally costed to be a dual carriageway at $50 million. They did half that for $48 million and it finished up at $200 million. Unfortunately, the poor foresight with regard to roads applies to just about every other major thoroughfare in Gungahlin. Horse Park Drive and Gundaroo Drive are just a couple.
However, the problem is not limited to roads. The AMC, our supposedly new human rights compliant jail, was full the day it opened and has been experiencing overcrowding and security issues ever since. Even in recent weeks the government seemed to brag about the amount of contraband that had got into the prison. It was quite extraordinary. And if they are not failing to deliver projects, they are failing to maintain them, as evidenced by the situation at the Canberra Hospital. When it comes to problems with infrastructure delivery and maintenance, the ACT government has it down pat. Everything they touch seems to blow out in cost and in time.
Major international and national reports show long-term decline or stagnation in the ACT with regard to literacy and numeracy, in science and in maths. Despite spending far more per student on government schools than the states do, our results are very similar to those in Victoria. A recent Auditor-General’s report shows that our results are far worse than comparable schools in the rest of Australia. All these reports seem to be ignored by the government, which is simply unwilling to look at the facts.
It is all very well to cling to a handful of economic indicators that are mainly a result of commonwealth expenditure in the ACT, but what we really need to look at is this
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