Page 1685 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
negotiation to get through. Likewise, if you are trying to get to the leisure centre you have got to do a similar sort of arrangement if you are coming down Langdon Avenue. That is because Sternberg is not particularly well controlled. If there were some traffic lights on that road you would have a staggered traffic flow.
I travel along Sternberg probably 20 times a week and I can tell you that they have been calling out for traffic lights to control the traffic flow. We talked about the possibility of a flyover of Erindale Drive at the intersection with Sternberg. That is a fantastic solution but it cannot happen straightaway. I would rather have those temporary measures put in place than have to do what Mr Smyth would like, which is to have yet another look into it.
I can remember writing to the Liberal government in 1997 about these particular intersections when Mr Kaine was the minister. I also can recall, when I was the Minister for Urban Services and the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and therefore responsible for roads, raising a number of times with Roads ACT what we could do about it. But I would like the chamber to note that I received not one letter, not one representation, from Mr Smyth offering a solution to those traffic snarls in that time—not one—and I dare say that if the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services goes back and examines the records she will find not one representation from Mr Smyth to find a solution.
Mr Smyth’s comments this morning were that this has got problems, it has got limitations, it has got this, it has got that, it has got something else. I will tell you what it has got: it has got the potential, if delayed, to be responsible for somebody else’s death on Ashley Drive, on Erindale Drive. I would suggest that, rather than say that we should hold this thing up, we say thank goodness that we have got enough money in this supplementary budget to get on with it. I say thank you very much to the government for doing it. I will be able to see a solution to a problem identified way back in 1984. It has been a very long time coming. I thank the government for the money and I recommend this report to the Assembly.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (12.26): Just briefly on the issue around Ashley Drive, this saga is just another example of how ACT Labor have treated the people of Tuggeranong. It seems they have promised this so many times and never delivered it to the people of Tuggeranong who use that road. I am very familiar with it, having till a few years ago lived at that end of Bugden Avenue in Gowrie, used the intersection between Bugden Avenue and Ashley Drive and understood the limitations of that road.
Certainly the Canberra Liberals believe it should have been duplicated long ago. I believe there was a promise from the Liberals which, if we had come into government, would have been implemented. I understand the Labor Party have just been talking about it, talking about it and talking about it but not delivering.
We are big believers that you have to get in front of these road infrastructure issues. You do not wait until the problem has been there for years and years before you finally duplicate some of these roads. Ashley Drive is an important road for the people of Gowrie. It is an important road for the people of Monash. It is an important road for
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video