Page 2374 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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We have committed to these in our infrastructure plan, which clearly outlines all the major infrastructure projects that we will be doing over the coming years, and we are getting on with the job. That is in stark contrast to what the Liberal Party has done, which is to put in jeopardy, every step of the way, major infrastructure projects like light rail.
Mrs Jones: On a point of order, the question had nothing to do with the Canberra Liberals, and the minister is debating.
MADAM SPEAKER: He is not.
DR PATERSON: A supplementary question. Minister, I was wondering how the disruption task force will work to inform commuters of all these roadworks?
MR STEEL: I thank Dr Paterson for her supplementary. We will be communicating through a range of different channels as the build commences about how people can best get into the city and what the progress is on the project. It will be through radio; it will be, for anyone that wants to sign up for updates, through the light rail website when it is established. We have, of course, established a community reference panel, which I met with the other day. It has representatives from a range of different stakeholders in the community. We have established an accessibility reference group in Transport Canberra and City Services, and we will be consulting them on the accessibility aspects of the project. And we will be providing information through stakeholders that often have quite a large membership so that they can disseminate information to their members that might be pertinent to them. So how they can get into the city on a bike during the construction period if they would like to, or how they can use public transport—the Public Transport Association will no doubt be very helpful there—and how we can work with business to make sure that they can accommodate more flexible arrangements so that their employees can get into work and not be held up in traffic.
We will be working with the entire Canberra community. That is why we have the disruption task force—to get on with that preparation and planning now, well ahead of this major infrastructure build commencing.
Light rail—traffic planning
MR HANSON: My question is to the Chief Minister—no, I’ll give it to the Minister for Transport and City Services. He deserves one!
Minister, you were recently quoted as saying light rail stage 2A would cause traffic congestion never before experienced in Canberra. Given that survivability in life-threatening situations is directly linked to emergency vehicle response times, Minister, what contingency plans have you made for emergency service vehicles attempting to access life-threatening situations during this period of traffic congestion?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. As I have stated to the Assembly today, we are undertaking a significant amount of preparation and planning as we
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