Page 2148 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Australia are realising this. Yesterday, for example, the Victorian government revealed plans to direct $2 of investment in clean transport infrastructure for every $1 that it is spending on roads.
In Tuesday’s budget, the ACT government is planning to spend $27 on roads, highways and feasibility assessments for future roads for every dollar of investment in clean transport infrastructure. That is quite a difference. We need to change from a car-focused mindset to a sustainable transport mindset. In Melbourne, for instance, councils are building European-style, separated on-road cycle lanes. Yet, for some reason, we do not even consider these as an option for Bunda Street, which would seem to be an ideal location and which is currently being planned for redevelopment. So the Greens will continue to advocate for funding for infrastructure and planning which supports sustainable transport. At the very least, I expect that the newly funded roads will be built with transit lanes incorporated, bus-priority access and bikeways.
One excellent part of the budget, however, is that the government is honouring the Labor-Greens agreement to provide an additional $6.4 million funding over four years for cycle paths and $500,000 a year for footpaths. These improvements are a major win in the ongoing efforts to create a greener urban environment. The growing number of cyclists in Canberra and the huge number of pedestrians will appreciate this improvement. Recent data shows that the number of cyclists moving into Civic has increased by 50 per cent over the last five years, showing among other things that linking routes into town centres can have a big impact on cycle use.
The huge amount of money spent on roads and on other road related activities makes me conscious of other areas of the budget that have missed out. My Greens colleagues have mentioned some of these. There was one that I was surprised about. The RSPCA has not had its funding renewed in this budget and it now, I anticipate, will be forced to cut services, mainly in the area of stray animal management. A tiny fraction of the money given to roads would have kept the RSPCA services alive. I wonder if the government will be in a position to take up caring for stray cats if the RSPCA is no longer able to do that.
I note also that there is substantial capital upgrade funding for road safety measures and rehabilitation. I hope that part of that funding will cover the consultation and possible implementation of 40 or 50-kilometre-per-hour speed zones around town centres. This was part of our agreement with the Labor Party, because there is considerable evidence that low speeds make a substantial difference to reducing the risk of injury for cyclists and pedestrians. I am very pleased that the government has decided to look at this item as part of the bigger road safety roundtable and I look forward to seeing it implemented in the next few months.
As Ms Hunter mentioned, it was very disappointing to see the ACT government has not continued funding for the Gugan Gulwan literacy and numeracy program. Indigenous students continue to be disadvantaged and we would like to see the government issue an aggregated statement for all Indigenous funding, much like the previous women’s statement, which would improve transparency and accountability in relation to funding of Indigenous programs.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .