Page 2742 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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There are so many areas within ACTION that could be addressed today. It is an incredible drain on the ACT budget and we seem to get very, very little in return for it as it stands at the moment. It could be so much better, and the Liberals will continue to be a constructive opposition in providing alternatives to how to make the ACTION network better.
Within TAMS there are many different areas of business. One which is of concern to many is, of course, the quality of roads. Page 73 of budget paper No 4 shows that the annual percentage of municipal roads to be resurfaced was four per cent but that the estimated outcome was three per cent. That is a 25 per cent failing when it comes to resurfacing our roads. They might say, “It rained a lot last year; therefore we couldn’t resurface as many roads.” If that were so, why were more roads not resurfaced in previous years? Why did we not get in previous years one or two per cent above the target levels? I think there are some more fundamental reasons as to why the roads were not resurfaced. It is disappointing that, yet again, we have another policy area where we have a government that is totally unwilling to make the tough decisions.
I find it hard to believe that some of the processes and procedures within TAMS are actually followed. I was told that every three months every road in Canberra is swept by a street sweeper. I do not know about other people in this place, but I am not sure I have seen one out the front of my place four times in the last year. I am not sure many people have seen one out the front of their places in the last year at all let alone four times. I find it a little bit hard to believe that every three months there is a street sweeper going around every single street in Canberra. Yet that is the procedure, that is the policy. It seems pretty absurd to me to have an unrealistic target like that—which is not being met and which is not being readdressed—still on the books as one of the policies. Why do they not simply come clean and say, “It’s not happening; let’s work out a strategy to make it happen,” rather than pretending.
Mrs Dunne: The problem is they have not come clean.
MR COE: They have not been swept clean; that is right. They certainly have not been. They certainly have not come clean, because they have not been swept. But that is just one example of an area within TAMS where there could be significant reforms that would be of real value to people in Canberra. It is certainly something which a lot of people raise with me when it comes to core services.
There are other things in the last year or so which I have raised with the government. There are probably a couple of hundred things that I have raised. There are many such things—like Thynne Street in Bruce, where I lobbied for pedestrian access to an aged-care facility. There was the lobbying for an intersection from Joy Cummings Place near Aikman Drive. Citizens who live in Joy Cummings Place, who live in Kangara Waters, had contacted me and raised concerns about the intersection. I contacted the then Chief Minister on a number of occasions; finally he did agree that there were serious safety concerns, and that intersection was upgraded. There were also concerns about the bus stop on Joy Cummings Place, and I was very pleased to get a positive response from the government.
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