[Greens-Media] A stab in the dark

[Manderson, Roland]

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ACT GREENS MLA DEB FOSKEY MEDIA RELEASE
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7 June 07

A stab in the dark

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has described the 2007/08 budget as pretty
good by normal Territory standards, but shows the Government has no
vision, and will detail her reasons in the budget reply speech this
afternoon. 

"In year when Climate Change and education are hot topics we need strong
leadership. Instead, this year's budget has lots of roads and buildings
and a few bandaids, but lacks any social and environmental impact
analysis" Dr Foskey said today.

'This is now a lobby driven Government. Clearly there has been a lot of
noise about the mess this government has made of our buses, and about
car-parking at the hospital - so some money is being spent there."

"But the Housing Minister, for example, denies any difficulties with
service cuts because he hasn't received any complaints. That's no wonder
as he slashed the funding of Shelter and CCHOACT, the two housing sector
advocacy groups."

"The saddest thing is that the secret Costello Report last year seems to
have been the trigger for this government to abandon its Social Plan,
its Sustainable Transport Plan, and its Spatial plan despite their
general community acceptance. There is now no long term vision or
framework for this or subsequent budgets."

"I could find no evidence of an understanding that climate change and
overcoming disadvantage need to be addressed in every initiative."

"Education, which was savagely attacked last year, gets new buildings
and IT in return. But there are no initiatives to address the weaknesses
in our education system, which is that it is great for most students,
but those disadvantaged in some way get left behind."

"The community sector is still waiting for decent indexation and
adequate funding, yet that's where people work with - and advocate for -
the most marginalised in our community." 

"The welcome action on affordable housing is more about land release and
developer driven initiatives than support for low cost rental housing
and growing the public housing stock." 

 "If last year was about financial responsibility - which the ACT
Government has said it was - this year (with climate change and the
drought) should have been about environmental responsibility. Its
Climate Change Strategy has been promised for years, but there's too
little in this budget for implementation if and when it arrives."

"There is no evidence that Health, Emergency Services and Education are
building in the need to adapt and respond. There is no boost for Parks
and Wildlife. And more money on a few new buses might help our emissions
but won't change our patterns of transport." 

"Even the Environment Commissioner is stuck on insufficient funds when
he needs to make a critical report on the State of the ACT Environment."

"This budget shows us that the ACT Government needs to get out of the
bunker, take a connected approach to policy development, and rediscover
its commitment to a 'triple bottom line'," Dr Foskey said.

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Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey  
Legislative Assembly for the ACT 
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au ===== 
  
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