Page 3535 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
not on the books at all.” And it was not. He said, “Any such plan would be five to 10 years away.” That is what Labor would have subjected us to if they did not respond to the Liberals’ promise to duplicate the GDE. How dishonest. How dishonest to pretend that it was somehow going to be sufficient for five to 10 more years. If the government had their way, that is what the people of Gungahlin would be facing. If they had not been forced into the decision to duplicate, they would still be waiting. The fact is that they should have made the decision to build two lanes in the first place. That is the problem.
We should not let the Greens escape on this one. Bob Brown was doing his best to try and block it. We had Save the Ridge, we had the poor decision making of ACT Labor, and we had the federal Greens trying to intervene. We are seeing that again—we are seeing shades of that again—now with Throsby. They do not want the commonwealth to intervene unless it is on an environmental issue that they are interested in. Then they are happy for the commonwealth to intervene. There should be more commonwealth intervention, according to the Greens. Knock off a whole suburb if you can. Who knows what that will do for the likes of Horse Park Drive and other road upgrades for the people of Gungahlin—if Throsby is declared a no-go zone, as the ACT Greens would like. The Greens did their bit. In fact, the local Greens have said that if it was up to them it never would have been built. If it was up to Meredith Hunter, the member formerly known as a convenor, there would be no GDE.
These are the choices in the spectrum of the Labor-Greens coalition. You have got the choice of no roads—no new suburbs, no roads—from the Greens. And you have got the choice of half a road from the Labor Party. That is the strength of this coalition.
Let us look at some of the time lines. Let us look at some of the blow-outs. It was originally costed at $32 million for a four-lane road to be delivered by 2005. ACT Labor promised to build the road for $53 million in 2001, to be completed by 2004. It has come in at roughly $150 million over budget—$150 million and seven years over. Two of my children were born after this road was meant to be delivered. One is now at school; the other will be at preschool next year. They were born after this road was meant to be completed. That perhaps gives some context to just how long people have been waiting for this road.
That is why this is a matter of public importance today. This does matter. This does matter to Canberrans. It matters to them when they spend hours in traffic rather than spending time being productive in the workforce or spending time with their kids. That matters. It matters to them personally. It matters to their lifestyle. It matters to productivity and our economy when people are stuck in traffic for hours on end when they should not be. It should not be the case in Canberra.
Sometimes we hear those opposite say, “We are better off than Sydney or Melbourne.” We may well be, but we should be doing much better. Canberra has always been a good place to live. That is why people come here. The lifestyle is good. But this mob has done their best to erode that. And for the people of Gungahlin it has been eroded. For those who are sitting on the GDE every morning, that hurts. And that affects their lives. There has to be a better way. This short-term thinking that has epitomised this government’s road delivery and infrastructure delivery has to stop.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video