Page 3631 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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able to fix quickly because it is so strapped for cash, as a direct result, of course, of long-term neglect.
Instead Canberrans are getting the cancellation of road upgrades, important road upgrades, to help pay for stage 2 of the tram. The minister will not, or cannot, tell Canberrans how much stage 2 will cost nor when we can expect it to get to Woden. But he is more than happy to cancel road upgrades to pay for it, especially to throw money into the tram-funding black hole.
The Master Builders Association has also suggested that there will be a significant loss of jobs, about 773 local jobs, as well as approximately $250 million for the local economy from the cancellation of these road projects. Those upgrades would have been more likely to be delivered by local small and medium business, and to have them cancelled abruptly is extremely disruptive for their business planning, hiring and investment decisions.
The construction industry have expressed serious concern about the huge impact on confidence and certainty if the ACT Labor-Greens government and the federal Labor government are able to put an axe through important projects that have already been promised and announced. But it is so typical of this Labor-Greens government to take no notice of the Canberra community. It ignores them in its decision-making.
My suggestion to all Canberrans, when they are driving on the Tuggeranong Parkway, any of its feeder roads, Pialligo Avenue or Boboyan Road—or attempting to drive on Boboyan Road, because, of course, it is so dangerous!—is to remember that this Labor-Greens government diverted the funding to upgrade these roads. It diverted the funding that was allocated and planned for to upgrade these roads to help fund a tram that will take people from the city to the middle of Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.
The next time Canberrans are waiting at the emergency department for hours and hours on end, or are worried about their children’s education results and mould or hazardous materials in their classrooms, or wrecking their cars on another pothole, or concerned about the lack of police support in our community and about dangerous driving, or stressed about the increasing rates bill that they are hit with, I urge them all to remember that this Labor-Greens government has cut funding for all of those vital and essential government services, and that it is increasing taxes, increasing the burden, for all Canberra ratepayers. to pay for the tram.
My motion today calls on the leaders of each of the parties represented here in the Legislative Assembly to write to the federal Labor government calling for the funding to be reinstated for those necessary and important road upgrades. My motion demonstrates to the Canberra community that, unlike Labor and the Greens, we in the Canberra Liberals are listening to and taking notice of the things they care about. We will continue to keep fighting for not only greater transparency and accountability in government decisions on which millions and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are being spent, but also making sure that basic local services, like road upgrades and proper maintenance, will be a priority. I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for Skills, Minister for Transport and City Services and Special Minister of State) (3.48): We will not be supporting Ms Lee’s
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