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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2193 ..

MR CORBELL: Take a tablet Mrs Dunne; take a tablet. I thank Mr Hargreaves for the question, and it is an important question. Recently the shadow minister for planning, Mrs Dunne, has been out claiming that they were going to build this four-lane road and it was only going to cost $32 million. If I recall correctly, Mr Speaker, they were going to start next month. Well, let us get down to the facts.

Mrs Dunne: You claimed it as well. You actually were going to save $7 million on that $32 million. You were so cleaver before.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Members of the opposition, I know you want to help Mr Hargreaves get an answer to his question, but will you please let the minister answer uninterrupted.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, in the 2001-02 ACT budget, the Humphries budget, they scheduled GDE from the Barton Highway to Belconnen Way, four lanes, for $32 million; Caswell Drive duplication $6 million; and Glenloch Interchange upgrade $15 million. The figure of $32 million nominally was for a four-lane road with grade separations on an alignment, as we all know, to the east of the Australian Institute of Sport. However, Mrs Dunne failed to advise members in this place, and indeed the Canberra community, that all of those figures were a preliminary estimate.

Mrs Dunne: Since when does the capital works budget become a preliminary estimate? It is not what Mr Thompson said in the estimates last year.

MR CORBELL: Oh, take a tablet, Mrs Dunne. But further, Mr Speaker: in 1997 the costing of $32 million was based on 1997 construction prices-1997 construction prices. That is five years ago. What has happened in five years? Well, first of all there has been a CPI increase of close to over 13 per cent. So in the past five years the CPI cost has gone up 13 per cent, but they can still deliver a four-lane road for $32 million. Goodness me!

Secondly, their costing was based first of all on very preliminary designs which were undertaken in the Maunsell PA study, a far less detailed level of design than we released last Thursday. Further, they did not take account of the further investigation-Mrs Dunne has not taken account of the further detailed design investigation-that they would have needed to have done to determine the final price for the road. So the costing is five years out of date, there has been a 13 per cent CPI increase in that time, but they can still deliver a four-lane road for $32 million.

Mr Speaker, let me tell you how much road they are going to get for $32 million. There would be a four-lane road that finishes somewhere in a paddock in the middle of Bruce. That is the outcome that Mrs Dunne is promising if she thinks she can deliver a four-lane road for $32 million, because she doesn't take into account that it is a 1997 price, it is five years old and there has been a 13 per cent increase in the CPI. All Mrs Dunne is delivering is a road to nowhere-a four-lane highway that finishes in the middle of a paddock in front of the AIS.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. I thank the minister for most of the answer. Could the minister tell us why were preliminary 1997 figures used in the 2001-02 budget?

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