Page 1556 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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this debacle rests firmly on the shoulders of the Minister for Finance and Urban Services. He is not listening to me anyway; I am wasting my time reading the speech. Would you like me just to give you the speech, Mr Duby?
Mr Humphries: That would be nice. Whose is it?
MRS GRASSBY: Would you like to read it for me?
Mr Humphries: I would not mind.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Grassby, please proceed.
MRS GRASSBY: Thank you. If I can have silence, I will. This debacle rests firmly on the shoulders of Mr Duby, not the Federal Minister for Land Transport, the Hon. Bob Brown, MP, or his Commonwealth department.
I do not deny that the 18 traffic areas which have been approved for the Commonwealth funding require attention. They are not 100 per cent safe. Let us face the facts. Can anyone nominate a truly safe stretch of road anywhere in Australia? But I do not believe that the 18 particular traffic spots nominated for the Commonwealth funding represent the most dangerous traffic spots in Canberra. Consequently, there is a problem with the priority here, and for one reason or another the Minister appears to have not yet given priority to the most dangerous traffic spots in Canberra.
Mr Speaker, this is not just my thinking on the matter. The Minister's decision clearly goes against the best information available. It does not recognise the statistics collated by the Australian Federal Police on which are the most dangerous traffic spots in Canberra. Nothing which Mr Duby says can refute this fact. I am sure Mr Duby realises that the Federal Police have pointed out that the really dangerous black spots have not been affected by the money spent.
Mr Speaker, to clarify my belief that the responsibility for this debacle lies with the Minister, let me briefly outline the process involved to obtain Commonwealth funding for upgrading dangerous traffic spots. It is not a very complicated process. Having agreed and adopted a package of national reforms, the ACT became eligible for the Commonwealth funds. The responsible ACT Minister then had to nominate traffic black spots in the ACT and forward them to Mr Brown's department. Mr Brown's department then had to ensure that the nominated black spots met the necessary criteria. If they did, moneys would be allocated. This basically is the process which was followed to reach the unfortunate decision which we are now debating.
As you can see, Mr Speaker, there was no role for the Commonwealth in any way to question the nominations put forward by the Minister. This is because the Commonwealth expected that the responsible Minister in the ACT, Mr Duby,
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