Page 1576 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2006
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government. We know that the NCA have plans for the Russell Hill roundabout. We know that the airport wants to open up various entries and do things that were never dreamed of out there, such as retail bulk goods. We know that there are people coming down Majura Road from Gungahlin that we have to look after.
I have decided to convene a round table, and invitations will be going out in the very near future, so that we can tackle this issue as a community-type problem with the following people—there may be one or two extra that we will add to it—in no particular order: representatives of the airport; Gary Nairn, because of his ministerial rank and obvious commitment to the good burghers of Jerrabomberra; the member for Monaro, Mr Whan; and people from the Department of Defence, the RTA in New South Wales, the Department of Transport and Regional Services and the NCA. Of course, I, as the Minister for the Territory and Municipal Services, will be at the table. I have probably forgotten one or two other people.
Those people will be decision makers. The object of the exercise will be to work out how big the problem is, work out the time lines, work out the funding opportunities and see whether we can work out a strategy for fixing this particular part of the world so that we do not have another bandaid solution to the problem, we do not have another Bruce Stadium sitting on our hands, we do not have everywhere something that is not green grass but is actually paint. What we will have is a concerted effort to fix the problem of Pialligo Avenue.
We have in a road safety sense the best roads in the country and we do attack it in the knowledge that we have the best roads in the country. Mr Pratt knows that. I am surprised that he would even bother to mention that. I think that Engineers Australia got it right in terms of the roads. We got a B rating. They are brilliant roads. We are putting a lot of money into them, we have lots of experts going into them, and Mr Pratt, in his struggle against relevance deprivation, is coming up with spurious little MPIs such as this one. The issue of road safety is important, but it is not a matter of public importance for this place.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (4.11): I note that the minister does not believe that the state of roads and infrastructure in the territory are any more a matter of public importance. I find that quite telling. The minister just engaged in an exercise in buck-passing in the extreme. Nothing is this government’s fault. It is all the commonwealth’s doing. Did you hear that, Mr Pratt? Did you hear that, Mr Speaker? It is all the commonwealth’s fault. We heard that for the last 15 minutes.
The delay in the GDE was someone else’s fault. It was the previous government’s fault. It was the protesters’ fault. It had nothing to do with the fact that Mr Corbell was pursuing a flawed route in order to appease the Save the Ridge activists. It had nothing to do with that, of course. The minister did not really address any of the issues. All we have heard is: it is the commonwealth’s fault; if the commonwealth would only give us more money, it would all be okay. Despite what the minister thinks, this is a matter of public importance; it is an issue for this government. As well, there are some commonwealth crossover issues, which I will deal with in a moment.
One area in which I would agree with Mr Hargreaves is the Kings Highway. I think many Canberrans would agree that the Kings Highway needs an upgrade and will need
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