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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1308 ..
MR PRATT (continuing):
... given the widespread concerns in the community, can you guarantee that there will be no disruptions caused by the western route option to this very important sporting event?
You replied:
I can guarantee that there will be no threat to the viability of world cup games here in Canberra.
Minister, do you accept that there is a difference between guaranteeing that the western route will cause no disruptions to rugby world cup matches and guaranteeing that it will not threaten the viability of world cup games? Let us try this again. Minister, are you prepared to guarantee that the proposed western route of the Gungahlin Drive extension will cause no disruptions to the rugby world cup?
MR CORBELL: "Viability", "disruption"-really, are we quibbling about words again? Quite clearly this government, unlike those opposite, is committed to providing a road corridor for Gungahlin residents-providing it in a timely manner and providing it in accordance with our election commitments. That is what we are going to do.
Of course there are issues being raised by the AIS; of course there are issues being raised by the ACT Rugby Union. That is why this government and I as the responsible minister have met with those individuals and those organisations on a number of occasions now since the election result in October. Let us not forget that the previous government was resoundingly defeated-
Mr Smyth: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order on relevance. The question was: does he understand the difference between disruption and viability? He hides behind the viability; he refuses to answer the question on disruption. I would ask that you ask the minister to answer about the impending disruption.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, you may use other words to describe the question-will any football game go ahead successfully or will motorists have to stop on the way to the stadium? We might have to turn all the traffic lights to green.
Mr Smyth: Of course, motorists having to stop would be a disruption, which is different to viability, Mr Speaker. I would ask that he answer the question.
MR SPEAKER: I cannot direct Mr Corbell to answer questions the way you want him to answer them. I just cannot do that. If you want to hand over your script to him and ask him to do so, you can try it on but I am certainly not even going to bother because I don't think it would work. It is up to him to answer the questions the way he wants to. If you don't like the way he answers the questions, you have other options open to you.
MR CORBELL
: Mr Speaker, let us not forget that it was the Liberal Party that was resoundingly defeated at the last election on the issue of the eastern alignment. But they just cannot bring themselves to accept that fact. They cannot do it. Even though their
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