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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2195 ..

MR SPEAKER: I am just informed by the Clerk that it was put as a rhetorical question-was it to mislead?

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, clearly this is a sore point for the opposition because they know they cannot deliver a four-lane road for $32 million and Mrs Dunne is still out there insisting that that is what they would have done.

Let me tell Mrs Dunne what advice I have received from DUS on this matter-the people who build our roads for us, Mrs Dunne. The figure for 2001 for the Gungahlin Drive extension in last year's budget was $1 million. Clearly, if the Liberals had remained in power after the last election it was the intention of DUS to undertake more detailed design along the lines of the work that the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, SMEC, have now undertaken for the government's preferred western alignment. Arising from this study-this is the advice from Urban Services-it would have been necessary to revise the overall figures, with the revised figures to be incorporated into future budgets. So there was no way-no way-that they could deliver a four-lane road for $32 million. So why does Mrs Dunne keep trotting around the community saying, "We were going to do it for $32 million and it was going to be four lanes"?

Mr Speaker, all that they are going to deliver is a four-lane road that finishes in a paddock somewhere in Bruce. That is all they are going to deliver. Mrs Dunne knows that is all they are going to deliver but she continues to seek to mislead the community on this point. There is no way, based on current prices, the Liberals could build a four-lane Gungahlin Drive extension for $32 million. Mr Speaker, a road to nowhere is all Mrs Dunne is promising.

Gungahlin Drive extension

MS TUCKER: My question to the Minister for Planning also relates to his recent announcement regarding the route of the Gungahlin Drive extension. Minister, your proposed route goes through the car parks of the AIS, which I understand is land held under lease by the AIS-a lease that will not expire until 2010. Could you tell the Assembly whether the government intends resuming this lease; whether you will be paying compensation to the AIS for the lease or building replacement car parks on another part of the AIS land; and whether this cost has been incorporated into the $32 million you have budgeted for the road?

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, as members would be aware, the lease has always been a short-term lease, identified as such, because it was possible that a road would be built on that alignment. So the lease issued to the AIS was always a short-term lease. I am not familiar with the details of that lease, but clearly the government will take the appropriate legal steps necessary to ensure that the land is available for construction in accordance with our construction timetable. The total cost of the project, $32 million, does take account of a range of design issues, and those are issues which are currently being assessed through the community consultation process and further discussion with stakeholders.

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