Page 2176 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I said that it would be on time and on budget. It will be on time. There is absolutely no question about that. And it is on budget. As I have mentioned before, there are increases inherently in the contract. In fact, in the first—(Time expired.)
Mr Pratt: It’s called parallel universe time.
MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: You won’t be getting a supplementary until your colleagues quieten down a bit.
MR STEFANIAK: I am sure they will.
MR SPEAKER: If you have got them under control, that is good.
MR STEFANIAK: As they did, Mr Speaker. Minister, given that it is one lane, what will happen on the GDE if a truck breaks down, especially over one of those bridges? It is very narrow.
MR HARGREAVES: I am rather stunned at the lack of imagination of the Leader of the Opposition. We have had not one—
Members interjecting—
MR HARGREAVES: In fact, I think it is a fair bet that, if an articulated bus or truck were in fact to break down and jackknife across the two-lane road we know as Adelaide Avenue—guess what? The road would get blocked. It is a very simple thing.
We need to understand that what we are also hearing coming across the chamber is that there should have been a four-lane road. There is absolutely no recognition from those opposite that price escalation due to their particular agitation has—
Mr Pratt: It was the original project definition.
Mr Smyth: Your words.
MR HARGREAVES: Due to their agitation, the price has gone up because the time taken to actually get on with the job has resulted in those price escalations. But what this Assembly has not been told is how much out of the election promises this lot are going to promise the people of Canberra to put the extra two lanes in.
We might alert the Treasurer to this fact. What I am seeing coming out of the opposition is criticism because we have got on and built the road. You can actually drive your car all the way from the Barton Highway to Ginninderra Drive—in fact, you can drive on the road between Ginninderra Drive and Belconnen Way.
That did not exist when these guys were in government. They are saying, “Why didn’t you build a four-lane road?” It is very simple: because a four-land road would have
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .