24 August 2010

Does money spent equal money delivered?

| johnboy
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Katy Gallagher is letting the world know that she’s spent a record amount on capital works (or as she prefers to call it “infrastructure investment”):

“The Government has successfully achieved a preliminary outcome of $580 million for the 2009-10 Capital Works Program,” Ms Gallagher said.

“This is an exceptional outcome- almost double the previous record of $296 million which we achieved in 2008-09,” she said.

And what did we get for the money? Here’s the highlights reel:

    — the Belconnen Arts Centre,
    — a new 16 bed intensive care unit at Calvary Hospital,
    — the Canberra Hospital’s new Walk-in Centre,
    — a new Southside Park‘n’Ride and Bike‘n’ride facility at Mawson,
    — the upgrade of Tharwa Drive,
    — the extension of Wells Station Drive,
    — the Lakeside Leisure Centre refurbishment,
    — City West Infrastructure Stage 2, and
    — a new Horticultural Facility at the CIT Bruce Campus.

    Value for money?

    Record spending on the 2009-10 Capital Works Program

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Oh JB, you ask such difficult and tricky questions.

a new 16 bed intensive care unit at Calvary Hospital

More money thrown at the Catholic church. Why didn’t they put them at Canberra Hospital?

justin heywood1:17 pm 24 Aug 10

Any fool can spend money, it is not an ‘achievement’. Give me the cheque book – I bet I can do even better!

A real ‘achievement’ is spending the money wisely. For example, if the money thrown at the ‘Walk-In’ centre significantly reduces the waiting time in the ED at Canberra Hospital (one of the worst in the country) -then that is an achievement. But I’m not holding my breath.

What are they going to say at the next election? “We’ve achieved bugger-all, but at least we spent all the money doing it”

the ACT building and construction industry was stretched during 2009-10 as a result of the Commonwealth’s significant stimulus program, the strong housing market and large private sector projects

If we had a strong housing market and large private sector projects, why exactly was all this stimulus cash needed? All it would then do is overheat the market, push prices up and reduce value for the money spent.

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