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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4627 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

A better approach is to aim for an affordable balance between the provision of new roads and the creation of a more effective public transport system, as a genuine alternative to private car use.

Bearing in mind that they have not addressed any of those other issues I have been touching on, that on the face of it seems a reasonable idea. However, when you actually stand back and look at it in the light of the Government's policies, it becomes a little bit more worrying. This report suggests that we spend less on road infrastructure - on maintenance and on new roads. It says, "Perhaps people should catch the buses more". Yet what have we seen over the last two years of this Government? We have seen a consistent and concerted attack on the public transport system in this Territory. Having launched, over the past two years, a consistent and concerted attack on the public transport system in this city, they are now apparently going to run down the roads and say, "You should all catch the buses". That is the underlying message here.

There is a third solution offered in this report, and that is to move all the people. The third solution is urban infill, to move people close to the town centres and close to Civic so that it will be easier to catch the buses. Never mind about having the buses transporting people from the suburbs where they live. They will move the people to the buses instead of the buses to the people. There is nothing wrong with properly measured urban infill, but talking about urban infill as an alternative to providing an effective and efficient public transport system is not good enough. Talking about that as an alternative to proper maintenance of our road system is not good enough either.

There is a lot more to be said about this report, and I am sure that there is a lot more that will be said. I wish that the Government had come into this place today with a report which could genuinely command the broad support of the community and which had engaged the Commonwealth in an ongoing commitment to this city, a commitment to meeting its responsibilities as a corporate citizen and a commitment to some pride in their own national capital. I wish that the Government had come into this place with a document which genuinely mapped out strategies, which genuinely showed how we were going to move towards implementing the principles set out in the Territory Plan, the principles set out in the vision statements produced by the Canberra in the year 2020 project. The Government has missed an important opportunity to produce a document which could take this city forward at a time when this city, more than ever before, needs direction, both to create certainty and confidence for the residents of this city and to create an environment in which business can truly prosper and can truly be confident. I wish that they had done it, and I am sorry that they have not.

MR MOORE (4.08): It is interesting that the Chief Minister continues as the chief spin doctor in Canberra. The reaction to Canberra: A Capital Future should not come as any surprise. The committee that I chair, the Planning and Environment Committee, was given draft copies of this document and briefed on it some two months ago. We wrote over it. We sat down with some of your officers and we went through it, and we said, "There are major problems with this document".

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