From my Desk
I have been inquiring into the recent repeated power outages in North Canberra after being contacted by multiple concerned residents. After lodging Questions on Notice to the Minister regarding the power outages in Casey, Ngunnawal, Jacka, Taylor and Moncrieff, I have finally received a response to my below questions from the Minister:
The following Questions on Notice were lodged:
Question: What is the Government doing to prevent future power outages?
Question: Will compensation from damages caused by these power outages be made available for residents and businesses, and will the Government conduct an investigation into the causes of these power outages?
Chief Minister for the ACT Andrew Barr responded with “the Government has a role in supporting transition of the energy system to Net Zero while maintaining affordable, secure and reliable energy through improving certainty for renewable energy, storage and nationally significant transmission projects.”
The Government is more concerned about renewable energy sources than providing stable and consistent power supply for all Canberrans. There were no clear answers as to why these power outages have occurred and may continue to occur in the affected areas.
The Chief Minister also stated that “for those affected by these power outages, customers are entitled to rebates from the energy retailer or energy distributor if they fail to meet Guaranteed Service Levels. Additionally, customers can also make a claim for compensation for damage to their property and are assessed on an individual basis.”
Here is the link: https://www.evoenergy.com.au/Your-Energy/Make-a-claim
Out and About
August has been a busy month between attending estimtes hearings, annoucing my policing policies (read below for more!) and hitting the pavement in our suburbs.
A reminder, if you haven’t already please take a few minutes to complete my community survey ‘Your Suburb, Your Say’. It will take you less than 3 minutes to complete. The survey can be found here, if you could please spare a few minutes to complete it.
Well, the election is offically 64 days away! Seems so close yet so far and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before polling day, on October 19th. If you are free and interested in helping out with my campaign, or would like to house a James Milligan coreflute out the frount of your home or business, please get in touch by replying to this email, or filling out our form here. Any help you might be able to offer would be grealty appriciated.
Back in 5
Brand new back in 5 this month with Anthony from Phoniex gym in Mitchell, check it out.
Portfolio
Policing Policy released!
Earlier this month, as the Shadow Minister for Police, I had the pleasure of launching the Canberra Liberal’s Policing Policy, as part of the Canberra Liberals Making our Cities Safer Campaign. As part of the campaign the Canberra Liberals are promising 200 more police officers, transition the Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre to be a stand alone police station, a new police station in Molonglo and more.
In the lead up to the October 2024 Election, the Canberra Liberals will be releasing more key policies, with a vision for a Fresh Opportunity for Canberra. To discover more about the specific policies from my Shadow Portfolios, follow this link.
Estimates reveals
Estimates are an interesting time in the Assembly, an opportunity to question the government about their initiatives and reveal all the matters they try to hide. There’s usually a lot of obfuscation – hiding the details of matters that should have been addressed, or matters that they won’t be funding for some years to come! This year was no different.
You would have heard that the CEO from the CIT after being on paid leave for 2 years (at a cost of almost $800 thousand), also received a golden handshake! She received a total of $1.2 million even though she had engaged in “serious misconduct”. Why was nothing done about it? You may well ask. The Minister for Skills was not able to provide a satisfactory answer.
We discovered that though there is long awaited and much needed funding to be made available for foundational supports for people living with a disability but who don’t qualify for the NDIS, they are going to have to wait at least another year.
The government revealed that though whilst they are negotiating the details of an agreement with the Commonwealth, they were not prepared to put any money currently into what they themselves admit is a significant gap in disability services provision.
Honestly, it is time this government was voted out of office. They are out of ideas and fail the community at every turn.
Let me know what you think, I would love to hear your thoughts on these matters and anything else you wish to chat to me about. As always, if you have not already done so, follow me on socials @Jameskmilligan to find out more about our policies as we head to October!
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