Page 3970 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007
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This bridge has been closed for 442 days. In the meantime, the Tharwa community has been somewhat choked. In recent times, we have seen three small businesses in Tharwa close down on the back of this government’s despicable behaviour in closing the Tharwa community school. It then had a double whammy when the bridge closed—for no good reason, the bridge closed.
As I have said, businesses closed because this minister did not have the sense of urgency or sense of attention to detail to look at the real state of that bridge two years ago when it was first considered in terms of its future—to look at the engineering evidence which was then available. He took the easy way out. He did not analyse the true situation—because he did not give a stuff about the Tharwa community, for one thing, and because clearly he did not give much of a damn about the heritage value of that bridge. That is why this minister has failed in his duties around this fundamental issue; that is why this minister should resign.
The minister had three meetings with the Tharwa community between August and October 2006. He indicated that there were a number of options available. In the October meeting, he said words to this effect: the bridge had deteriorated to such a point that it was going to fall down at any stage. That is a quote that many people in the Tharwa community remember and have detailed back to the opposition.
The community was tired and weary of the time that had dragged on—with the bridge temporarily closed, and the bridge re-opened and closed again—accepting the government’s word that the bridge was beyond economic repair. The government said that the bridge was beyond economic repair, so, in October—yes, the community agreed with the government decision to build a new bridge.
In this place the minister has made much of saying that this is what the community wanted—this concrete bridge. But he fails to point out that that was after misleading that community, after a series of loaded meetings where they were presented with few options—a very tired and depressed community, already bludgeoned by this government in terms of what it had done to Tharwa community school. The committee said, “All right; if that is the only option we have got, we will get on with the concrete bridge. Just give us a bridge—any bridge.” They took the minister on trust. The Tharwa community took the minister on trust. This minister—wherever he has gone; this minister missing in action again, AWOL, not at his post again—failed the Tharwa community. They took him on trust.
This is the fundamental failure by this minister. We have seen additional travelling times imposed on the Tharwa community. We have seen a death on the road 18 months ago when the bridge was first closed. You cannot subject a community to country road traffic conditions and expect there not to be any risk. Did this government undertake a risk analysis for keeping the bridge open or running urgent repairs versus a risk analysis on the safety of Point Hut Road? I bet they did not. This minister would not think in those terms.
The other point is this: with the bridge closed, the southern fire brigade, which needs to service both sides of the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, now has a 25-minute detour. We can see, too, that community ambulance crossings cannot occur. We have seen a total failure.
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