House debates

Thursday, 27 May 2021

Bills

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2021-2022, Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022; Second Reading

11:51 am

Photo of Josh BurnsJosh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Not 'baklava' but 'Balaclava'. I do enjoy a baklava. They said, 'We're going to spend $15 million building a commuter car park in Macnamara.' I thought, 'You know what, that's not a bad announcement, but I'd like to see some of the details, because something's a bit fishy here with the $15 million commuter car park announcement in Balaclava.' Like with many things with this government, you've got to look at the details. The announcements are great. People say mean things about this government, but boy can they write a press release. They can write a pretty mean press release. They will finesse that to the nth degree. But there is one thing they didn't do when announcing the $15 million Macnamara Balaclava car park. They forgot to talk to the local government, the City of Port Phillip, and they forgot to talk to the state government, because they announced commuter car parks on land that had already been designated for social housing. There was already a deal signed between the state government and the local government in Macnamara, in the City of Port Phillip, for social housing.

This is a classic way in which the Morrison government operates. They bring the cavalry in; they bring the cameras in and say: 'Come on everyone, look at me. We've got a fancy announcement. We're going to build car parks.' But then they say, 'We're not going to talk to any of the stakeholders. We're going to live in this Liberal Party slush fund bubble that doesn't actually engage with the real world.' Then, when it comes to actually being able to deliver, of course we went two years, and guess how many car parks were built, Deputy Speaker. Were there 10? No, there weren't 10. Were there five? No, not five.

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