Speech in the ACT Legislative Assembly

Appropriation Bill 2009-2010

7 May 2009

Mr Speaker, I rise today to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2009-2010.

Mr Speaker, this ACT Budget is a classic irresponsible Labor budget that is big on deficit, big on taxes, big on fees, charges and fines.

It is a budget that avoids the difficult decisions that need to be taken.  Governments aren’t elected to sit in neutral.  They are elected to take the tough decisions and ensure that they meet the needs and aspirations of the community they serve.

Parliaments and Governments need to react to the challenges and circumstances that confront it.  It is not good enough to come into this place and say I’m not going to do anything about it because it’s too hard.  The job will just get harder.

It is unsurprising that the Labor Government has announced a disastrous budget.  Even in the boom years the Labor Government couldn’t manage its budget.  During the boom years, those years in which the Labor Government received some $1.6 billion above and beyond budgeted revenue, there was a budget crisis causing the budget we had to have in 2006. 

If you listened to the rhetoric of the Chief Minister just a couple of years ago, you would be very surprised indeed to learn that the ACT Budget is now in the shape it’s in. 

When handing down the 2006-07 Budget, the then Treasurer, Mr Stanhope said:
Today, I hand down a budget and announce a suite of structural changes that will put the finances of the Territory on a sustainable path.

That budget was of course informed by the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT Public Sector and Services – the Costello review – which to this day the Chief Minister refuses to reveal, and has been discussed at length in this place today.

The point I make today is that sustainable, Chief Minister, is more than two years between budget crises.  It is clear that the 2006 budget, in boom times, only resulted in the cutting of services and increased taxes, fees, and charges, to pay for the waste.  The waste has caught up with us again. 

Mr Speaker, budget deficits do matter.  There is nothing temporary about them.  The money has to be found somewhere, if not now, in the future. 

The waste that occurred under this Government’s watch during low inflationary, low unemployment, and high growth times is scandalous.  And now they seek to take us even further down the high tax, high deficit, high waste, unsustainable path.

Urban Services

The Urban Services budget is nothing more than the Government playing catch up on years of neglect.

The number of urban services projects rolled over is indicative of a government that can’t get its priorities right and fails on delivering the most basic services that Canberrans demand and pay for.

There is no better example of this than the library for the inner south.  Many people throughout the inner south still can not believe that the Griffith library was closed.  It was a very popular service and utilised highly by residents in the inner south. 

Just think how much money the taxpayer would have saved had the government not closed the library in the first place.  Instead of maintaining an important service the government has now allocated $7.1 million to rent, staff and stock a new library in Kingston.  There are some issues with this, not least because of the difficulty of parking at Kingston and the cost of parking at Kingston (which will also go up as a result of the budget).  Many older residents and younger families, and those with a disability, who were able to utilise the Griffith library with the confidence that there would be a car park and easy access, may not be able to as easily use a library at Kingston.

Not only does this Government avoid the difficult decisions, when it makes the easy ones, it simply gets them wrong.

Rates have gone up beyond inflation, by some 3.7 per cent.  And yet, our local infrastructure is generally in generally such bad condition.  It is a great shame that some in the community still remember the days before self-government as the days when the look of our city was better and public amenity much higher.  We have to work harder in this place to get the basic local services right. 

The budget papers reveal the Government has failed to meet road resurfacing targets.  Again, more and more roads aren’t being resurfaced and the quality of the overall network continues to decline. There is evidence that suggests the road resurfacing that is done, is not even done properly.

Transport

Mr Speaker, the Transport budget is nothing more than a desperate cash grab.  The budget papers reveal a slap in the face to every single Canberra commuter.  The Government’s transport plan is simply a tax plan.  All Canberrans commute, and all are about to pay more.

Parking fees will increase substantially.  From July 1 this year there will be an increase of 20 per cent on ticketed parking machines and from next year an increase of 50 per cent on metered machines.  People parking in the surface parking areas around our city will be paying $375 per year extra, and $250 in Woden, Belconnen and Tuggeranong.

The average Canberran I think would be happy to pay more if better services are going to be delivered.  But what more is someone driving a car to the city going to get? Not much.  Instead, they are going to get a parking study and an increase in the number of full time parking inspectors.

So there you go.   The Government’s strategy for parking is:
• to slug Canberrans more and more for less parking spots
• conduct a survey to tell us we don’t have enough parking spots, and
• to hire more parking inspectors to fine those who have no doubt tried to park lawfully but can’t because of the shambles that is parking in this city.

We have heard the rhetoric before from the Minister for Transport about the need to get off our driving habit and onto a bus.  But that’s getting more expensive too.  From 1 July we will see an 11 per cent increase in bus fares. 

What will ACTION commuters get for that?  The performance indicators in Budget Paper 4 reveal they will get a worse service.  The government has given up on on time running for ACTION.  This year’s budget papers reveal that over the last year, 83 per cent of ACTION services have run on time.  This is well short of the 99.8 per cent target.  Instead of announcing changes to get services back on time, the target has been adjusted to 83 per cent.  That means, in the same year that ACTION will get an extra 11 per cent for fares, 1 out of every 5 buses will run late.  If next year, only 70 per cent of ACTION services are on time, can we assume the next budget target will drop to 70 per cent?

It’s a bizarre transport strategy that attempts to get people out of their cars by charging more for parking, and then charges higher fares for later buses on a network that doesn’t meet the every day diverse transport needs of Canberrans.

The NRMA has observed that motorists are simply seen as an easy target for revenue from the government.

Housing

The housing budget is another Labor Party cover up.  An unashamed cost shifting of $102 million of the federal government’s stimulus package is masking the underperformance of this Government.

As I raised in the media over the weekend, there is no mention of the $1 billion commitment to provide funding for some 1,500 extra homes in the territory.  When the Labor Party and the Greens signed their parliamentary agreement they were either deceitful in knowing how much it would cost and didn’t tell anyone, or didn’t know how much it would cost and decided looking good was more important than being good.  Either way, the agreement is a shambles and is not worth the paper it is written on.

The budget clearly lacks a direction on the involvement of community housing organisations in the provision of social housing in the territory.  Community housing should be the future of social housing in the territory.  Unlike the creaking public housing bureaucracy, community housing can provide housing that meets the diverse needs of individuals and families in a much quicker and more sensitive way.  These organisations are better able to tailor housing solutions to meet specific needs and are able to do it at a much lower price. 

Heritage

The heritage budget is small, but very important.  In the lead up to our centenary year, 2013, it is more important than ever that we are able to tell the story of Canberra from our pioneering beginning through to our city present.

Our heritage must be remembered in our rural villages, our suburbs, and our institutions.

Youth

Mr Speaker, the new Bimberi Youth Justice Centre is a key project delivered in this reporting period. Yet, in spite of the fact that the facility was operational for less days than planned, the average cost per custody day at the Youth Justice Centre was 11.6 per cent over the 2008-09 estimate.
 
It is disappointing that the total number of children and young people for whom the Chief Executive has parental responsibility increased by 7 per cent above the budgeted number of 505. We must do all we can to support families so it doesn’t get to the point whereby needs of children in vulnerable families are better served by the State.

I would like to associate myself with the comments of my colleague Mrs Vicki Dunne will be making shortly in relation to the youth foyer model.  This model, as I understand, has worked well in overseas jurisdictions, and could offer the ACT a much more effective and efficient model of providing services to youth. 

Conclusion

Mr Speaker, in conclusion, we must remember that the government is here to fulfil a role in offering basic community services.  Government is about doing what the people want, not people doing what the Government wants.

This Government is tired, and there is still more than three years to run in this term. The Chief Minister’s arrogance has been dealt a blow by minority Government. Yet, no longer can he treat this place with contempt and no longer can he take a vote in this place for granted.

As the Leader of the Opposition has said this is a budget that ignores the times.  These are the times to act decisively, not to sit on our hands.

What do people say about this budget?
- Is it economically responsible? No it’s not.
- Does it do justice to the community sector and not for profit organisations? No it doesn’t.
- Does it improve the environment for doing business in Canberra? No it doesn’t.
- Does it fix our suburbs and improve our urban amenity? No it doesn’t.

This budget is an ideas free zone.  The Government has delayed making decisions to build our future.  Instead, we have a budget to build our debt.

There are fundamental problems in the ACT budget that have not been addressed.  The Treasurer delays the difficult decisions and continues the big government waste rip off.