Page 2195 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 3 August 2021
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The other central links which have been identified in our transport strategy which go through Belconnen and which are our public transport links are also important, and we are continuing to invest in those as well.
Off-road shared paths are not the only part of this connection. On-road shared paths are a feature of all our road upgrades as well, but we want to provide the opportunity and option for people to go off road where they can.
Under the transport strategy, we have committed to undertake further work, in consultation with the community, on standards for active travel along mid-block sections as well as key intersections. We are looking at how we can improve safety in the design of those features that goes beyond Australian standards.
MS CLAY: Minister, what infrastructure will be included to protect bike riders when they are crossing the roads?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for her question. With the off-road cycle lanes, we will be utilising many of the underpasses that already exist on William Hovell Drive so that people can safely pass from one side of the road to the other in certain sections as well as connecting with the bicentennial trail, the equestrian links, and the rest of the shared path networks. There should be no reason to have to cross the road. Further up the road network, there may be intersections that are established. Those will have safe crossing points for pedestrians.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, when will construction of the duplication of William Hovell Drive happen?
MR STEEL: Following detailed design.
Alexander Maconochie Centre—detainee searches
MS CASTLEY: My question is to the Minister for Corrections. Between October 2020 and April 2021, 208 strip searches were carried out on women at the AMC. Almost 60 per cent of them were conducted on Indigenous women. The data released via FOI also revealed that women at the AMC are stripped searched at a rate of roughly 30 a month. The population of women at the AMC is about 20. Julie Tongs and ACTCOSS have both pointed to this data as evidence that a commission of inquiry into systemic racism in the entire ACT justice system is needed. Your government has repeatedly dismissed any such inquiry. Minister, does this data showing disproportionate strip searches of Indigenous women constitute evidence of systemic racism in the ACT justice system?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Ms Castley for the question, and I will say that the government has not rejected that claim. In fact, we are leading a response in the justice sense of the amount of Indigenous over-representation within our whole justice system. The Attorney-General is leading that work. Indeed, as a government we are responding to the inquiry for Ms Tongs and the roundtable recommendations. I am pleased that that work is starting.
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