Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (24 March) . . Page.. 749 ..

MR SMYTH: Mr Stefaniak tells me he knows the street well because of a relationship he had there. Mr Corbell told the Assembly that, after having been contacted by some residents there, the department's decision was wrong and that we should keep the traffic calming measures. In fact, Mr Corbell said, and I quote from Hansard:

I think it is only appropriate that the Minister not proceed with the removal of that traffic calming measure until at least there is an opportunity for other options to be considered as alternatives.

I guess, Mr Speaker, that Mr Corbell, as a spokesperson for the Labor Party, a spokesperson for the Labor Left, in his role as planning spokesman, has made that statement on behalf of the Labor Party.

Then, oddly enough, Mr Speaker, the Right enters the fray. Unfortunately, like good road rules, the Left should give way to the Right, but in this case I guess we are going to find out that that did not happen. Mr Hargreaves has an opinion on this as well, Mr Speaker. Mr Hargreaves, from the Right, oddly enough has a contradictory view of this. I guess he is putting that contradictory view as Urban Services spokesman. Mr Hargreaves, in a letter to a resident that the resident very kindly sent on to me, said that he had visited Dennis Street and had a somewhat different appreciation of the matter. It was not a case of a slowdown at all, Mr Speaker. Oddly enough, the letter is addressed to the resident's street, not to the resident himself. I will quote from his letter. He said this:

I visited Dennis Street about a month ago and made representation to the Minister regarding the problems associated with the closure of the street. It is illogical and absurd to redirect traffic past a school, which is already congested in the mornings and the afternoons.

So the Left is telling me to keep it in place, and the Right tells me to take it out. Mr Hargreaves went on:

It is obvious that the traffic arrangements at Dennis Street have not been sufficiently thought through ... Hopefully the traffic island will be removed sooner rather than later.

So one is in, one is out. Nobody is giving any way. I guess Mr Corbell's experience may well have been that the Labor Left is screaming, "Wrong way. Go back". So we go on, Mr Speaker. I guess what highlights this unity on the part of the Labor Party for me is that recently on 2CN there was an interview with Gary Gray in which he said what a good job Mr Stanhope was doing; that he had unified the party; that they were working as a team; that they were tied together and were all pulling in the same direction.

Mr Corbell: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker.

MR SMYTH: Oh, look, here we go.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .