Page 2247 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011

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(B) the impacts of the road in terms of induced traffic, congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, transport modal shift, economic costs and the urban form of Canberra; and

(C) alternative options to a new freeway such as targeted upgrades to existing Majura Road intersections and choke points;

(ii) collected data about the amount of freight passing through urban Canberra, its origins and destinations and the expected amount that a Majura freeway would divert; and

(iii) tabled the above report in the Legislative Assembly; and

(c) report to the Assembly on the progress of the above items by 6 December 2011.

My motion relates to the role of the Majura parkway in the territory’s transport plan.

I will just speak briefly to some of the comments that have been made by other speakers in contributions to this debate. I will go first to Dr Bourke. Again we hear that the government have essentially changed their tune on the Majura freeway. It is not about addressing congestion for the north of Canberra; it is for freight. Yet as I pointed out earlier, the government have no data, no idea about the amount of freight travelling on the roads through Canberra and how much freight would actually use the Majura freeway.

We also hear that this is about the airport. You do have to ask what federal intervention the ACT government are receiving from federal Labor members whose electorates will benefit from this road and going out to the airport.

Again we hear from Dr Bourke and Mr Corbell that we will get both: we are going to get the freeway and we are going to get rapid public transport. We all wait with bated breath as to how the government intends to fund this. We have all heard statements before. In fact, I think that we have had about three previous reports.

Members interjecting—

MR SPEAKER: One moment, please, Ms Bresnan. Stop the clocks, thank you. Can we just try and keep the casual conversations down in volume a bit. I am having trouble hearing Ms Bresnan.

MS BRESNAN: We have had about three previous reports, and now again we have got the Northbourne study project, but we still do not have a commitment of any kind to proper rapid transit in the ACT. There is just a statement that we are not going to rule out light rail. That is what we have got. The government need to provide a time frame for this and say how we will fund it and when the Canberra community can expect to see proper rapid transit in the ACT.

Mr Corbell does not seem to be listening to what we are saying. We have repeatedly said—this is in relation to public transport—that it is not just technological. It is about


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