Page 4218 - Week 11 - Thursday, 17 Sept 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Stanhope promised in 2001 to build the road by 2004 with four lanes at a cost of $53 million. He did not actually sign the works contracts until 2005, one year after the whole project should have been finished. The second contract was not started until May 2006. So after the 2001 election, Mr Stanhope and Labor very quickly downsized the road because of the cost increases and the blow-outs.
Ms Hunter: It was a very sad and sorry project from start to finish, really.
MR HANSON: Look, I know that you want to join the Labor Party, Meredith
Ms Hunter: No, no; it’s sad and sorry. Everybody made mistakes.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Burch): Mr Hanson, will you address your comments through the chair.
MR HANSON: Indeed, Madam Assistant Speaker; my apologies. Ms Hunter is in continual defence of the Labor Party’s mismanagement. Surprising.
Let us talk about the GDE. Who could forget the eve of the 2008 election when the Liberal Party came out and said, “We will duplicate this road. We will finally get the job done.” We have the front page of the City News, and that night we had the hurried phone calls, the panic response, the ringing up of Channel 9, WIN television, to say, “Quick, quick. We’ll do it, we’ll do it.” They did that as policy on the run, copying the Liberals’ policies on the eve of the election. It was a little bit like the school class sizes—average school classes of 21. It was going to cost us $90 million, but it was only going to cost them $20 million. This group have no idea of costings when it comes to major projects.
Another project that is dear to my heart and that of those opposite—Mr Corbell and Mr Hargreaves—is the Alexander Maconochie Centre. I was not at the opening. Did you go to the opening?
Mrs Dunne: No; I did not get a medallion either.
MR HANSON: No, you did not get the medallion. But many people were at the opening, and it gets replayed on the television many times. But, as we know, the prison was not actually ready. So this facility that was meant to have 374 beds was reduced to 300 beds. We were going to have 60 transitional release places, but that was reduced to 15. We were going to have a chapel, but that was not delivered. We were going to have some RFID, but that has not been delivered yet. We were going to have a radar machine that was going to stop drugs and needles from being brought into the jail, but that did not get delivered on time either. It is very unfortunate that this project was reduced in scope by so much.
Mr Hargreaves: You have been in the Army too long; it is not a radar.
MR HANSON: Well, we can have an explanation from you perhaps, minister, on why it was not working. As a result of it not being up and working, we now have drugs, needles, and other illegal paraphernalia in the jail.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .