Page 4812 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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cabinet. But it does not mean much if you do not actually respond. It does not mean much if you do not actually take action. Anybody can listen; anybody can receive letters. It takes a stronger person—it takes a stronger man—to actually admit that there is a better way, that there are mistakes and that they can go forward.
At the start of Mr Barr’s speech, he had a bit of a go at me for saying “Wells Station Drive”. It is very interesting that he should do that when his own planning chief executive, the Chief Planning Executive of ACTPLA, on 31 August this year, signed a notifiable instrument which talked about Wells Station Drive. If you go to the minister’s website, to actpla.act.gov.au or to the much talked about placename search and type in “Well Station Drive”, what do you find? Nothing—nothing at all. Well Station Drive does not exist in the ACT placename register. If you type in “Wells Station Drive”, guess what appears: the very street in question—the very street.
Here we have Minister Barr trying to tell us that he is the authority—the all-knowledgeable authority—on this issue, yet he cannot even get consistency between what he is saying and what is on his department website.
If you look a bit further on, you will notice that in 2006 they did formally change the name from Wells Station Drive to Well Station Drive. Technically, the actual name of the street as gazetted is Well Station Drive. However, that is inconsistent with Google maps, inconsistent with his website and inconsistent with a notifiable instrument signed by the Chief Planning Executive just a few months ago. Minister, I suggest that you fix those anomalies as quickly as possible.
What this is about is what I believe we are all here to do—improve the lives of Canberrans. It is very simple. It is all about making sure that we as an Assembly are directing the government to bring about improvements in people’s lives and make the lives of people in Canberra as good as possible. We are very clearly giving the government an indication, a direction, on what we would like to see them do on this issue. I urge the minister to listen to the call of two-thirds of the Assembly, listen to the call of the community and not stand on ceremony or be stubborn but accept what Canberrans are saying regarding this road.
Mr Barr: It is Well Station Road. I have got the page open if you want to have a look at the placename search.
MR SPEAKER: Gentlemen, I will invite you to take that one up in the lunch break.
Mr Barr: I do not think I can table my laptop.
MR COE: I will happily table mine in response.
Mr Barr: If Mr Coe has misled the Assembly, I am sure he will withdraw later.
MR COE: What are you saying?
Mr Barr: I am saying that if you have misled the Assembly—
MR COE: What are you saying?
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