Page 2197 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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Look at the government’s plan to upgrade, finally, the duplication of Tharwa Drive, five years late. They still cannot get it right. At the Mentone View roundabout on the extension, the government is putting in traffic lights. Why the hell are we putting in traffic lights on a duplicated stretch of road where finally we are going to unblock the traffic jams and get the flow of traffic moving! And then we put traffic lights in there. What are you thinking of?
In relation to the funding that has been allocated for roads, we welcome the money that has finally, belatedly, been put in to Tharwa Drive and a number of other projects. We welcome the money that is going into sorting out the Pialligo precinct fiasco. But what we do not see is a coordinated, five or 10-year strategic plan for road upgrades.
What we do not see here is any vision by this government of what they are going to do to improve the ACT’s road system. There is no territorial strategic plan for roads. It is money thrown at a couple of projects here and there, after, but only after, quite intensive community pressure. Yes, money is there but, by God, is that money going to be supervised? Is it going to be well spent? On the basis of what we have seen with the failure of the Gungahlin Drive extension, we have to be supremely sceptical.
I want to now move on to the landfill site issue. The government has set aside $850,000 for a new landfill site within the ACT. This should be seen by all in the ACT as a clear departure by this government from the ACT NOWaste by 2010 strategy. (Second speaking period taken.) The government has lost any credibility on the waste issue and lacks the vision needed to take us beyond unsustainable fixes and well into the future.
When we look at the performance graph in the budget papers on the NOWaste landfill strategy, what do we see? Not only has the graph not progressively improved the landfill performance down the years approaching 2010 but in real terms, even when you take into account population growth, the graph has flatlined. Like this government’s policy on waste management and like this government’s policy and its management of municipal services, the graph has flatlined. We have a flat line which indicates that we are nowhere near. How the hell in the next 18 months are we going to achieve anywhere near the zero landfill strategy!
We see, instead, $850,000 set aside for more of the same. We see $850,000 set aside for landfill, landfill and landfill. We do not see anything in the budget which would indicate vision or strategy for other waste management options. We do not even see significant funding set aside for, perhaps, undertaking studies into alternative methods of waste management. And the opposition finds this deplorable. In terms of the problems that we are having in the ACT with the look of the city and the rubbish problems that we do have, we cannot even get the waste management issue fixed.
I now turn briefly to the Gungahlin Drive extension, if I can just pull out one of the elements of our roads issues. The completion of the GDE, overdue and over budget, was a significant milestone for the minister. He has, however, failed to plead the case to build the road that was promised, and the budget does not make any allocation for possible expansion in the next five-year period, subjecting the people of Gungahlin to
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