Page 2696 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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This government has once again got its priorities all wrong, increasing spending on luxuries during the lean times and cutting essentials during the lean times. It does not make sense. But then nothing much this government does any more makes sense, and the community is feeling the impact. Let us look at some of the areas where this government is showing a complete lack of commitment to the community through its lack of commitment to funding key areas of need in TAMS.
Turning now to roads, the Stanhope government has, through its incompetence, delayed and mismanaged the Gungahlin Drive extension project, creating a huge black hole into which any other funding for road projects has disappeared, with the exception perhaps of $5 million. In budget paper No 4 at page 319, for example, we see the GDE budget blow out to $116 million, a $30 million increase on the previous year. This government’s poor management of this project has seen millions of dollars in funding that was otherwise allocated for other important road projects, such as the Tharwa Drive upgrade and Sutton and Boboyan Road upgrades, sucked into the GDE and disappear into a black hole.
We also see the blatant omission in this year’s budget of a five-year capital works road funding plan. While the Stanhope government have listed on page 120 of budget paper No 3 in the 2006-07 budget the previous five-year plan which the Liberals instigated and has now been completed, they have starkly contrasted this Liberal initiative by having no forward plan of their own.
During estimates hearings the minister also said that there could be no five-year road funding plan until the GDE was completed. He said, “Do not hold your breath.” The potholes down Adelaide Avenue and along Mugga Way, the surface stripping off Mugga Way and up Hindmarsh Drive and the uneven surface along Northbourne Avenue—all four weeks or plus old—will be there for God knows how much longer.
In fact, I heard one of the ministers yesterday talking about the old coach way from Yass to Canberra, cutting across the back of Gungahlin. I would put it to you, Mr Speaker, that the old coach way is in better shape than the Gungahlin Drive extension and most of our arterial roads. I am sure they expect the GDE to blow out even further. So they will need to keep their options open until they complete that project, as they obviously cannot commit to anything else in the meantime.
Let us look at something really quite disgraceful—something as important as the Tharwa Bridge—which is causing severe problems for that community. There is no funding allocated for a future upgrade of this bridge, even though the minister admitted that it is a major problem. I suppose that if the Labor Party’s plans come to fruition, they expect that, when they close the schools in Tharwa, no-one will want to live there anyway, so they will not need a bridge. Perhaps this is the minister’s bridge too far. I turn now to schools maintenance.
Mr Hargreaves: What has that got to do with TAMS?
MR PRATT: It has a lot to do with TAMS. Put your seatbelt on, minister.
Mr Hargreaves: I have got it on.
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