Page 572 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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times and failed to adequately fund refurbishment and upgrade programs, are now robbing Peter to pay Paul. They are taking all of the road money and investing it in one single road—the Gungahlin Drive extension. The problem is that there is no forward vision here; there is no view on how to make the city sustainable in the future. For all the talk, you still have to maintain what you have now to build on it into the future.
We realised in the late 1990s that we had to do something about Civic. The Civic revitalisation project took place and initiatives were taken to convert empty office space into accommodation, which has worked very well. The then Chief Minister got to reopen perhaps the best example of that—the new youth hostel across the road in Akuna Street.
The library and link development project is another piece of essential infrastructure that has been delayed. Almost $8 million was allocated in the 2001-02 budget to build the link project. Five years later it is now going to cost something like $14 million and is still not complete. That is symptomatic of this government. They have delayed things; things have cost more; they cannot deliver. The art program has suffered. I do not think there is as much public art done as there used to be. Public library upgrades are not occurring as they should. If we want to be part of the information world we talk about so often, where are the public library upgrades? A new one is being built, but we started that. You delayed it by five years and it is costing more money.
Mr Hargreaves: What about Kippax?
MR SMYTH: We started that as well. We have lost the extra street sweeping and the trimming of the plants by the roadsides. We used to hear from Mr Hargreaves about the whipper snipper man. Do you remember all the questions about the whipper snippers, Mr Hargreaves? Where are the whipper snipper men? What have you done with them? You have been the urban services minister for 16 months, and there are no whipper snipper men. The streets are full of weeds.
It is about finishing things properly. That is what people are complaining about. It is about the shabby look of the city; it is about the graffiti; it is about the weed spraying; it is about the lack of tree pruning; it is about trees that fell months ago and still lie where they fell; it is about things like kangaroo carcases that deteriorate to such an extent that the lawnmowers mow over them; they are just little blots on the landscape. We do not pick them up anymore and we do not keep the national capital looking as it should, as it did under us. It is also about your long-term view. It will be interesting to see what happens in this year’s budget for the long-term maintenance of assets. The longer we put it off—and it is being put off under this government—the worse the problem will be when we get to office and we will, as in 1995, have to clean up the Labor Party’s mess.
MR SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Minister for Health and Minister for Planning) (4.13): As my colleague Mr Hargreaves has outlined, the government has a comprehensive program in place to address issues to do with ongoing regular areas of urban management and maintenance. It is fair to say there are always challenges in a city like Canberra, given the nature of the urban development pattern that has occurred in our city. It is well worth emphasising the projects the government has in place and, in particular, the level of
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