Page 1321 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020

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Further:

The government does not even allow long extensions of time to pay before being slugged with interest if you can’t pay the already massive amount that’s due every 12 weeks. I have been in tears over this many times. I have to almost beg on the phone for just a two-week extension. It is cruel. I am only on a pension and pay the government a high percentage of my fortnightly pay, and yet I don’t even use the services.

Our rates freeze guarantee is about giving back control of household budgets to the families of Canberra. Our rates freeze guarantee is about respecting and honouring the people of Canberra who have worked so hard and contribute so much to this city. Only the Canberra Liberals will deliver a rates freeze guarantee of four years.

After 19 years of Labor and a decade of that in coalition with the Greens, the number of street and community trees has gone backwards by about 3,000 trees every single year. The tree canopy has gone backwards from 30 per cent to 21 per cent. No more obvious is Labor’s neglect of trees and our environment than in the new suburbs of Canberra. We have all been to suburbs that have almost no trees at all and, what’s more, probably never will. That is the legacy of this Labor government.

Generations of people in some suburbs will never, ever have a street tree, a tree in their front yard or a tree in their backyard. How can it be that literally thousands of blocks in the bush capital may never have a single tree in them? This is a legacy of Labor’s planning—thousands of blocks without a tree, ever, as a result of this government.

The Canberra Liberals are proud to partner with families, community groups, schools, local businesses and community-minded Canberrans to ensure that Canberra lives up to its name as the bush capital. As a key pillar of our plan to protect the local environment to ensure that we have a sustainable future for all, a Canberra Liberals government will plant and care for one million trees over the next decade. We will also deliver a green space guarantee to ensure that well-maintained green spaces are accessible to every household. These are real and practical measures that will protect our local environment.

Over the coming weeks we will continue to outline our positive plan for Canberra, and I am sure our opponents will continue to roll out poor copies of these initiatives. But one thing is very clear—only the Canberra Liberals will reduce the cost of living for families. Only the Canberra Liberals will deliver better local services for our city. There is a better way, and, soon, Canberrans will have a chance to vote for it.

MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (11.51): I move:

Add:

“(4) consult with the Leaders of all parties in the Assembly before such measures are publicly announced;

(5) notes that each month the Commonwealth publishes the General Government Sector Monthly Financial Statements; and


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