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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (21 April) . . Page.. 1056 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

It also refers to the desirability of improving the use of public transport. How does the use of public transport have any impact on whether we use the eastern or western arm of that particular extension?

Mr Kaine: Have you taken this matter up with Mr Moore, because it is his amendment?

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, Mr Moore knows very well my views. We have a government that can accommodate those different views without falling apart and going to pieces. While we are talking about different views, my recollection of discussions about these issues in the party room of which Mr Kaine was a member was that Mr Kaine was very much in favour of the government strategy at the time of pushing ahead with the Gungahlin Drive extension. That was my recollection, Mr Speaker.

Without divulging the secrets of what happens in our party room, when we discussed this matter it was always the view that we should simply work out a way of pushing ahead with this proposal. When there were people willing to block it, that was always the strategy we pursued. That was why the Government, in the last Assembly, took a submission to the Planning and Environment Committee proposing that we proceed with the next step of the process. I have not gone back and checked but I would not be surprised if the government response to the P&E Committee report, which presumably Mr Kaine would have put on the table, said we do not support this. I will have to check that, Mr Speaker. I will do that over lunch. (Extension of time granted) I thank members.

The fact is that this does amount to yet another inquiry into whether there should be a road there. There is no way you can dress this up and put pretty language around it and pretend this is actually an inquiry just into whether we go over O'Connor Ridge or whether we go down and join with the road going past Aranda, Caswell Drive. It is not about that. Caswell Drive and O'Connor Ridge are not mentioned in the motion. It is not about that. It is about the road itself. It is about the road from Barton Highway right down to Belconnen Way. That is what it is about.

Mr Corbell is going to have to do some fancy footwork next time he goes up to the people of Gungahlin to explain why he is now in favour of further delaying this process with yet another inquiry. I certainly intend to bring to the attention of people in Gungahlin the rather dramatic change of heart he has had about proceeding with this road. They certainly would have been under the impression, after the last election campaign, that they had a champion in Mr Corbell who was going to be in favour of pressing ahead with this road at the earliest opportunity. They will soon be disabused of that notion.

MR CORBELL (12.24): Mr Speaker, let me quote something to you which was said by a very well-spoken member of this place: "This is not a plan to build the road, nor is this a plan not to build the road". Who said that, Mr Speaker? The person who said that is Mr Gary Humphries. I repeat: "This is not a plan to build the road, nor is this a plan not to build the road". That is crystal clear, isn't it? That is crystal clear. That is exactly what the Minister for Planning said in the last Assembly.

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