Page 2941 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I would like to see Mr Steel come back to the Assembly by the last sitting day of this year, by which point it would have been more than two years since the petition of more than 740 people from Tuggeranong was sent to the government requesting that buses come off Anketell Street. I look forward to voting on my amendment to Mr Steel’s amendment.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Transport and City Services) (5.07): The government does not have a problem with supporting the amendment to my amendment to add a reporting date at an earlier time. As we have been over the past weeks, regardless of the motion brought forward in the Assembly today, we will continue to work through looking at these issues.
I am very happy to report back to the Assembly at an earlier date about how we are progressing with these works. As I have said before, it is not a simple matter. It is something that we need to continue to work on. Of course that is done in the context of the broader suite of upgrades that have been taking place along Anketell Street, stage 1 of works, stage 2 now being completed and then the laneways projects as well, and making sure that we are sequencing those works to minimise disruption and to ensure that we have safe routes for our public transport buses to use while those works are being undertaken. We will look very closely at what can be done. That work is underway. I look forward to reporting back to the Assembly this year rather than next year.
Of course we could have reported next year. Things could have progressed earlier than that and I could have provided a later update. So I do not think the reporting date is indicative of the work that has been going on right now or will happen in the future. But I am happy to support an earlier report-back date, which was not in Ms Lawder’s original motion anyway.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (5.09): Today we saw, I think, a betrayal of the trust of the people of Tuggeranong, a betrayal of the trust of the Tuggeranong Community Council by our so-called crossbench; yes, the crossbench whose leader sits in cabinet and whose other member always says that they agree with what we are saying but votes the other way time and time again. We have heard these described as a watermelon. It is quite a common description amongst political students. This suits our crossbench. It describes a member of a political party who is green on the outside but red on the inside, which goes to my point that this is not really a crossbench at all. It is a government made up of Labor and Greens, tightly bound by their agreement. Occasionally a backbencher crosses the floor, but it is very rare because it follows the lead of the government. It must be a difficult position to be in, to know that you are selling out your ideals, to know that you are doing something that your residents, your constituents, believe is wrong. Just today someone wrote from the Tuggeranong Community Council to Ms Le Couteur saying:
… I urgently ask you to stand by the majority of residents today as the motion of “Removal of Buses from Anketell Street” is put forward by Nicole Lawder for the people of the Tuggeranong Valley who have raised the major problem of the buses in Anketell Street now for some years.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video