Page 2810 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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That has to be a good thing.
I am pleased to see a few urban services wins in my electorate. There is the refurbishment of the Woden library, half a million there. There are new playgrounds, or upgrades in some cases, in Waramanga and Torrens. In Kambah District Park—I remember playing there with my daughter—there will be a new natural play space. There is $19.9 million over four years for more city maintenance and upkeep, which is particularly important for the new areas in Molonglo, where my constituents are complaining that they are missing out; they have not yet got onto the new schedules.
One thing that is particularly controversial in my electorate is the proposed car parking in Cooleman Court. Many people will support it, but many people do not support the idea of turning what is open space into a car park. The question that has to be raised is: how are we going to solve the actual problem there, which is taking the pressure off Cooleman Court by providing, somehow, actual community facilities, including a viable shopping centre in Molonglo? That is the real solution to the parking issues at Cooleman Court. I look forward to a solution being worked out for that one.
In general, I am pleased with many items in this part of the budget. Some of them, at least, will make a more sustainable city.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (4.49): There is no clearer indicator of the government’s intentions, priorities and character than what it chooses to fund in its budget, and this budget is no exception. It is a budget that has been characterised by the independent budget adviser as overtly political and shrill, and it shows to me at least that the government’s priorities remain north of the lake. I will give an example of why I say that. Budget statements H, which deals with Transport Canberra and City Services, mentions Tuggeranong five times and Gungahlin 21 times. That is one brief indication that shows the government continues to raise more and more money and tax Canberrans more and more at the expense of their everyday services.
I will give another example. Budget paper 3, at page 4, forecasts revenue to increase by over a billion dollars in the next four years. This is an annual year-on-year increase of four per cent, 4.9 per cent, 5.9 per cent and seven per cent for the 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 years respectively. By comparison, the road resealing budget for 2019-20 has been cut by eight per cent. Money going up; services going down.
Roads are one of the most essential services that Canberrans rely on this government to provide, but it appears we are cutting money from our road maintenance budget by $17 million, from $199 million to $182 million, an eight per cent cut. The funding levels do not return to their 2018-19 level until 2022-23. It also seems the government is cutting the road construction budget by $175 million, a three per cent cut.
Despite these cuts the government is forecasting that the same percentage of roads will be resealed as the years before, the same percentage of roads in the territory will be in good condition and the same percentage of people will be satisfied with the roads. I am unsure how that is going to happen. We heard during estimates from the
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