Page 2524 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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MR CONNOLLY: It is very important indeed, because there was an obvious safety risk, both to the occupant of a baby carriage and to persons on a bus whose driver might be forced to brake suddenly to avoid it. We have achieved that by negotiation with the union. That bus shelter was indeed a white elephant under the previous Administration. There was a stalemate; nothing was happening. We have negotiated a settlement to that, which will significantly improve the amenity for the people of Tuggeranong and which resulted from cooperation with the union movement.
Other areas of efficiency in ACTION will be looked at, with the cooperation of the union movement. That is the way this Government goes about it, rather than relying on ideologically driven reports.
MR STEFANIAK: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Mr Connolly, how much did the alterations to that bus station cost?
MR CONNOLLY: The alterations are still being completed. I said "weather permitting" because the major task that remains is to install these large glass screens. Given that there have been extensive winds in the last couple of days - Liberal Party windbags perhaps do not notice the high winds that others would - I understand that it has not been possible to install them, and it will take place either today or tomorrow.
Mr Duby: What was the anticipated cost?
MR CONNOLLY: I will give the final cost. The anticipated cost is in the order of $70,000 to $80,000 to install those screens.
Mr Jensen: So, the figure of $250,000 was a nonsense, was it?
MR CONNOLLY: The $250,000 solution about which Mr Jensen speaks shows the inflexibility of their thinking. The amount of $250,000 would have been the cost of ripping up the surface of the bus station and replacing it. This inflexibility of the former Government was that they could not do anything about this problem other than spend a substantial amount of money on a consultant's report on the level of the slope. They wasted $20,000-odd on a consultant's report. We have spent some money to improve the amenity significantly.
I will spend quite a bit of time in the pre-election period talking to residents of Tuggeranong, who will be sitting comfortably in the shelter of these glass safety screens, advising them that the Liberal Party thinks that the screens are a waste of time, and, if they are Liberal supporters, asking whether they would prefer to move down the carriageway and stand in the wind and the rain, because that is where they would have been if we had not made these major improvements.
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