Andrew Barr is a “national embarrassment”, says Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee in calling out the Chief Minister’s suggestion of a 50-50 funding commitment from the federal government for an indoor entertainment pavilion on the Civic Pool site as a stunt.
“On radio this morning, the Federal Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, Kristy McBain, confirmed that Mr Barr has failed to provide a business case with his request for funding for a stadium or music pavilion,” said Lee.
Minister McBain told her interviewer that “any proposal needs to have a strong business case to go with it… that’s obviously something the ACT government needs to bring forward and present to the Commonwealth at this stage.”
“I mean, at the moment, we’re all talking in hypotheticals because we don’t have a business case in front of us. It’s really important that the proper planning and consultation happens,” said McBain.
Lee said Barr has had 15 years to deliver the stadium and he had done “nothing but make countless announcements on feasibility study after feasibility study with no action or delivery”.
“Now he’s been caught out congratulating himself for writing a letter to the federal government, but failing to include a detailed business case, as required by the Commonwealth, and confirmed by the federal minister this morning,” said Lee.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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