Page 1552 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
PAPER
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to present a petition which does not conform with standing orders as it does not contain a request.
Leave granted.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I present an out-of-order petition from 136 residents, objecting vehemently to the removal of Ms Carol Grout-Smith as principal of Theodore Primary School.
ROADS - ACCIDENT BLACK SPOTS
Ministerial Statement
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services), by leave: Mr Speaker, the Canberra Times of today, 18 April, carried an article which appeared to suggest that the ACT Government is not allocating Federal funds to reduce road accidents in an appropriate way. Mr Speaker, I would have imagined that a matter so important as, for example, the deaths and injuries of ACT citizens on our roads and the reduction of motor vehicle accidents would have been raised as a matter of public importance or at least would have rated today a question without notice addressed to me. But no, that was not to be.
Mr Speaker, this inept, incompetent, lazy, factionally divided and disaffected Opposition, this Ashton's Opposition, this Barnum and Bailey bunch opposite, simply were not the slightest bit interested in something affecting the well-being of the citizens of the ACT. However, I for one am very keen to set the record straight by providing this statement to the Assembly which details the reasons for my selection of locations for accident reduction treatment.
The projects nominated by me to the Commonwealth Government for funding under the black spot program, and which the Federal Minister for Land Transport, Mr Bob Brown, approved yesterday, all deal with significant road safety hazards. By the way, while we are talking about road funding for this particular program, it should be worthwhile pointing out that originally our Federal Labor colleagues across the lake in no way intended to include the ACT in this black spot reduction program.
Mr Jensen: Shame!
MR DUBY: Indeed. They were then shamed - the word Mr Jensen uses - into offering a measly $1m over three years for this program. I am very pleased to be able to say that, as a result of consistent efforts on my part, that amount has been raised to some $2.4m over the next three years.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .