Page 114 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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In addition, there is no recognition of any of the savings that would be made in the realignment. And there would be savings if the eastern alignment was chosen. Such savings would include: there would be no need for a noise abatement wall; the new location for the intersection would mean that it should be a different design to the current location and, therefore, the new bridge would be unnecessary; there would now also be an increased area of land available for the Wells Station 4 estate.
Only one thing has changed since November, and that is a result of another flip-flop by the Greens. The Greens are clearly more beholden to the Labor Party than some of their public rhetoric would have us believe. Far from being a third force in ACT politics, they are a mere appendage to ACT Labor. The Greens have breached the trust placed in them by Harrison residents. In the words of Harrison resident Uday Kaza:
When ACT was granted Self Governance status, all Canberrans got ecstatic and thought their own people will make decisions in their best interest and decide the future of Canberra, but little did they imagine that in a matter of just 20 years that their people will turn blind towards them nor did they dream that their own people will ignore their legitimate concerns.
This whole debacle is of great concern to the Canberra Liberals, and it is bad for democracy in this place. It is bad, because either the Greens have more information available to them than the opposition to make this decision or the Greens have the same information but are willing to allow themselves to be bullied into a position by the Australian Labor Party.
Members, it is not too late to solve this problem. There is still time to right this wrong and to protect the Harrison residents’ livelihood, the safety of motorists and the correct process for decision making. I urge all members to visit the site, to chat with the residents, to attend the Gungahlin Community Council meetings and to research the proposal for the eastern alignment.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (5.25): I will be brief in my words, because this has been covered in some detail last year when we spoke about the substance of the issue in, I think, a motion raised by Mr Coe—I commend him for that—and Mr Seselja has again gone through the detail in his opening speech.
The issue today and why we have come to this point is that the Greens have sold out the community of Harrison. It is a great disappointment—I remember sitting here and listening to some very strong words from the ACT Greens, in particular Ms Le Couteur—and the people of Harrison can feel rightly let down that they have indeed been sold out.
It just seems that the Greens are so willing to change their position in accordance with the latest whims that they get, or the influence that is brought to bear on them by the Labor Party, whether it be through the planning minister or on other issues through the health minister. A comment was made to me last week that the Greens simply have more positions on issues than the Kama Sutra, and that is indeed the case. I will just reflect on some that we have dealt with recently.
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