"As an ACT parliamentarian delivering a speech in the ACT, it may have been more apt for Dr Leigh to reflect on the ACT’s record in relation to the incarceration of Aboriginal peoples rather than that of WA, writes JON STANHOPE.
Jon Stanhope
Jon Stanhope was Chief Minister from 2001 to 2011 and represented Ginninderra for the Labor Party from 1998. He is the only Chief Minister to have governed with a majority in the Assembly.
JON STANHOPE has some advice for anyone aspiring to become the administrator of Christmas Island: drink, fish and forget Canberra!
"While most politicians manage, for the sake of self-preservation, to quickly develop a thick hide, it's much harder for their families to do the same," writes JON STANHOPE.
Annual interest costs on ACT government debt will hit $517 million in 2025-26. That's more than the government spends on environmental protection, the police and mental health services combined, say JON STANHOPE and KHALID AHMED.
The ACT Budget deficit is bigger than the chief minister is letting on – $218 million bigger. JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED reveal that Andrew Barr, as Treasurer, has now produced 11 consecutive deficits with at least three more to come.
JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED lay bare, the funding disgrace that reveals the depth of the ACT government's financial neglect that's led to today's deadly crisis in the hospital system.
Confused? The ACT government pledged to the Commonwealth that cash from public housing land sales was going to fund light rail. The housing minister says, no they didn't. The chief minister's signature says otherwise.
While the Housing Minister might not be able to say where the ACT government's promised hundreds of millions for public housing disappeared to, JON STANHOPE and KHALID AHMED can. It was pumped into light rail. Here's what happened…
Where has the ACT government's much touted $699 million worth of budget promises to public housing gone? JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED can account for $81 million of it, after that, it's a question the Housing Minister won't answer…
JON STANHOPE and KHALID AHMED are concerned at the bureaucratic mocking of people seeking care at an emergency department because of a subjective assessment that their condition is 'mundane', but it all comes down to underfunding.
"The ACT’s increase in debt is largely due to poor financial management and deficits in the primary cash balance which have of necessity been funded through borrowings," say JON STANHOPE and KHALID AHMED.
JON STANHOPE was invited to the Welcome to Country ceremony preceding the opening of the 47th Parliament of Australia today and was moved by what he heard.
