Page 2458 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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One of the things we do is to give the police free bus travel, whether they are in uniform or not. We hope that they will use their powers of observation and arrest if they get a chance to do so. We also had a media campaign to try to get the public to be more aware of the issue, so that they could give us information to effect these arrests. And what did it achieve? Copycat; we had more of the stuff. We put shatterproof glass on the front windows of buses and we are now looking at putting it in all the bus windows, at a cost of around $500,000. We have done something. This is a scourge which plagues Australia. It is one of the most difficult things to detect and to arrest people for, but we have been proactive about it and I do not hear anything from Mr Pratt on it.
The commitment of the Stanhope government in the 2007-08 budget to the people of Canberra and their future is no better demonstrated than in the substantial funding boost to fundamental urban infrastructure services. This budget is strategically aimed squarely at improving our public transport, the amenity of our city, our roads and our landfill and waste management systems. The government is providing substantial funding for new roadworks and infrastructure in 2007-08 to meet the demands of an expanding community and overall safety. We are putting $1.2 million into the Southern Cross Drive extensions. An amount of $110,000 is earmarked for some work around safety improvements on the Kings Highway, due very much to the dangers imposed by the construction of the defence headquarters.
An amount of $3.4 million has been allocated for the duplication of Athllon Drive. I asked Mr Smyth to do that when he was the minister; he did not do it, and I have delivered it. We have allocated $100,000 for restoration options for Majura Road. Six thousand vehicles a day used it in 2002; the figure now is 16,000. We need to have some work done on that, so we have allocated $100,000. An amount of $700,000 has been allocated for major improvements to the Cotter Road. There has been no recognition of that from Mr Pratt.
With respect to connecting the new suburbs of Franklin, Crace, Forde and Bonner, we have allocated $14.7 million for new roads. We have put $15 million into the Canberra airport road refurbishment. We are aware of those difficulties and we have taken the lead; we have put $15 million on the table and said to the commonwealth, “Come to the party and match it by 50 per cent.” We will see what they say but I am not sure that we will see anything.
I draw members’ attention to another critical area of the budget—that is, the general amenity of the place. We put $9.2 million into the look and appeal of the city; $755,000 has been allocated to improve streetscapes, public seating, garbage bins, replacement of bollards, construction of a new shade structure in Garema Place, and a new footpath between City Hill and London Circuit. And public artwork associated with these works will be commissioned, no doubt to the horror of the would-be minister for no arts.
An amount of $3.25 million has been provided to upgrade the Ainslie, Garran and Melba shopping centres, as part of a wider shopping centre refurbishment program. Mr Pratt has no idea about program scheduling; he has no idea about the application of resources. He just says that we should be doing it all in one go. This bloke is really clever!
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