Page 3538 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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Mr Seselja: Just for the record, Madam Assistant Speaker, I was not heard in silence. I had interjections. He is very sensitive today.
MR CORBELL: I am not sure who interjected because it was not me, Madam Assistant Speaker.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Your colleagues were called to order on a number of occasions.
MR CORBELL: The fact is that the project was scoped to be delivered by the end of this calendar year and it will be delivered by the middle of October this year. That is good news for Gungahlin residents and it is good news for everyone who uses that road. I cannot believe that Mr Seselja would critique the government for delivering that stage of the project ahead of the timetable outlined in the budget papers.
Let us turn, Madam Assistant Speaker, to the other issue—how much this project was budgeted to cost. Who set aside the funding to deliver a four-lane duplicated road? Who was the government that first put down how much they were prepared to spend to deliver a duplicated road? It was the then Liberal government led by Mr Humphries. In the 2001-02 budget papers the first construction funding for the GDE was included. It included three budgets. There was the budget for a duplication of the road from the Barton Highway to Belconnen Way, the construction of a dual-lane road from the Barton Highway to Belconnen Way. An amount of $32 million was authorised for the construction of what was described as four lanes and tunnels. Then there was a $6 million component for what was identified to duplicate Caswell Drive. Thirdly, $15 million was identified to upgrade the Glenloch Interchange. That was a total of $53 million.
The government has very clear advice from our road engineering officials. They very clearly advise us that it would be fair to say it was not well scoped and the budget was inadequate for what was eventually constructed. So let us be very clear about this. This mob over there allocated a budget which was not well scoped and was not capable of delivering the duplicated four-lane road from the Barton Highway to the Glenloch Interchange. Let us be very clear about the credibility of this mob on the other side of the chamber in allocating money that was not sufficient to deliver a four-lane road, despite all their protestations to the contrary.
I would like to turn to some of the other important road projects where the government is delivering in a timely fashion. In the 2010-11 budget year more than $170 million of roadworks were delivered. The Territory and Municipal Services Directorate achieved a 100 per cent expenditure of funds allocated in the year for the roadworks. This was an excellent achievement, given the scale of the capital works for roadworks has increased in recent years. So we delivered in full all of the expenditure for road upgrades in the city.
I take it, given we have achieved this full expenditure of the annual capital works cash allocation for roadworks, that we will see those members opposite applauding the government on this very significant achievement. But I anticipate that will not be the
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