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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 05 Hansard (Tuesday, 25 May 2004) . . Page.. 2154 ..

You cannot have a bob each way on this issue; I think we have to be honest. Ms Tucker has just alluded to that. A running with the hare and hunting with the hounds approach is all about votes; it is not about the rights of the 30,000 or more residents out in Gungahlin. It is simply not possible to build a road and leave those against it happy with the decision, but that is life. As the minister said, it is about the broad public interest; it is about decisions for the majority. I understand that, in everything we decide in this place, there will always be a minority who will jump up and down and kick and scream. I guess that is what makes democracy so good.

This issue is not, and should not be, about whose legislation gets up; it is about 30,000 people living a daily nightmare of not being afforded proper access and egress to their homes and to their suburb. I do not live in Gungahlin but have made it my business on many occasions to sit in that traffic at peak hour. It is horrendous. A concern I have is about accidents with people who have children in the back of the car and who are doing U-turns to rat-run through Mitchell, over and over. That is appalling. These people deserve better, and they were promised better. We have vacillated and messed about for too long. We just need to get on with the job.

If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well. It is disappointing to see that the original concept and project design has been reduced somewhat—I would say by 50 per cent. The project is two years too late and two lanes too few. Somebody pointed out to me that there are an estimated 30,000 journeys per day, which totals some 10 million journeys per year. I think we need to take that into account. We need to understand that these people are living a daily nightmare. The current situation will deliver approximately 22 hours of wonderful roadway but there will be two hours within any day when we will still have a bottleneck.

This is yet another disappointing missed opportunity, as I see it, by this government to show leadership and make the tough decisions, make the hard call, instead of trying to appease everybody along the way. We need to consider over and over again the fact that the government have ducked and weaved to do everything they can to avoid having to make the hard decision to consider fully the rights of the residents of Gungahlin and the community and to get on and build the road. This morning the scrutiny of bills report 49 was tabled. On page 1 it says:

The GDE will greatly improve road access to the high growth area of Gungahlin for its residents and for all Canberrans by providing a road link from Gungahlin of a standard similar to that provided to other residential areas of the territory.

When we talk about civil rights, what about the rights of the people out in Gungahlin? What makes them any different? Why are we discriminating against them as opposed to the people of the Tuggeranong Valley, which I am sure my Brindabella colleagues will talk about. The report goes on to say:

Implicit in this statement is a claim that the residents of Gungahlin are entitled to equal treatment in terms of road access to other parts of Canberra.

I think that is a very valid point. I also see that for further litigation, as we hear constantly and daily in the media, the average figure is between $23,000 and $30,000 a week. What a waste of money! I know many homeless people who would

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