Page 2474 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 1 July 2008
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out a traffic light and it will involve cutting down five or six trees—they have already gone, guys. That was happening at 10 o’clock this morning, with no consultation, no warning; it is happening. It will cut off two footpaths and it will run within a couple of metres of a footpath used by local residents and students to get to Macgregor primary school. I was there yesterday and I saw two mums with prams, one mum with a few kids. They took the kids to Macgregor primary school and came back and they showed where they had to negotiate this roundabout.
It will go within 10 metres of Clode Street, and that is a turnoff that leads to Macgregor primary. It will be amazing to see how that operates. You will come out of the roundabout, do a little jig and you will be in Clode Street. That is an engineering nightmare, and I will come to that in a second. It will also cut off part of Mr Schmidt’s nature strip. Yes, it might drop his property value, but that is not his major concern. One would expect, though, that he and other residents would be at least told that the government were thinking about it. But more worrying for him is the fact that cars will end up in his house. There has been one fatality in the area already because, as I said earlier, that street is an area where people do speed. It is the first roundabout in that street. I said earlier when I told you where I lived—Ms Porter knows this very well because she has a relative who lives opposite me—that Archdall Street is a major thoroughfare and it survives with one give way sign.
You people should talk to ordinary citizens and do your basic maths properly. One give way sign probably costs less than $1,000 to install. One monstrous roundabout that you are going to foist on the citizens of Macgregor is going to cost you probably several million dollars. Be it on your heads if anyone dies or is seriously injured; I warn you. You are the government, and a government that consults and talks to people is able to say: “Hold it. Stop. This is a bad idea. Let’s have a think. Let’s talk to people and see what they want. Let’s talk to people to see what is reasonable.” You have been warned about this. The TAMS minister was on WIN last night; he knows. He had a letter delivered to his office from my office in the afternoon to tell him about it. He needs to get out there and talk to these people—not at them, to them—to understand what is happening. He is able then to say, “Let’s have a look at this; let’s stop it.”
Everyone is up in arms about this. Another bloke, Peter—I am sorry, I forget his name, but he is a plumber—lives opposite where the road is going in. He said he was talking to engineers, who said, “This is crazy.” Gary Schmidt has spoken to police officers in the traffic area who said this will cause all sorts of bottlenecks, that it is unsafe. I have a great regard for the Australian Federal Police. I have a great regard for the men and women who form the Australian Federal Police. I worked with them for 10 years—probably more, because I did a fair bit of private practice too. They are well respected. You people even say how well respected they are.
Why don’t you consult with them? Why don’t you listen to them? Why don’t you listen to them and other citizens as well? You do not, because you are too arrogant, you are too smug, you are a majority government and you just do not think anything is going to happen to change that. Well, let me tell you that I am not too sure what is going to make up the composition of the next Assembly, but it certainly will not be a majority government. Your arrogance has seen fit to put a death to that—and probably well it should too.
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