Page 1212 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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to ACTION. Ms Le Couteur, I wrote it down: “After 12 months nothing has happened,” she laments; “The government is doing nothing.” Doing nothing in relation to transport? Doing nothing in relation to public transport? We currently have the biggest capital works program in the history of the ACT—since self-government, at least, and probably before that—invested in roads and transport infrastructure. There is some $175 million in contracts currently out, a number of them in relation to specific transport-related initiatives like busways. Go to Barry Drive. To stand in this place today and say the government is doing nothing—70 kilometres of bike paths sealed this year; 700 kilometres of bike paths and footpaths in the last eight years; $175 million this year in transport infrastructure; Redex funded this year. To say we are doing nothing—how ridiculous. If that reflects the quality of the report then the report is worth nothing.
Ms Le Couteur stands here today and says that we are doing nothing, on top of the massive record levels of expenditure in all aspects of transport. There is $100 million being spent on buses. I announced last week the first steer tag bus at $529,000, with four more to follow within the next month. That is a massive investment. And you dare to stand in this place and say we are doing nothing? (Time expired.)
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (10.50): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to briefly reply to some of Mr Stanhope’s comments about my views.
Leave granted
MS LE COUTEUR: I will be brief, because I did not take notes about everything. First off, Green Square. As Mrs Dunne pointed out, Green Square is not a local centre and never has been a local centre; it is a group centre. On the basis of questioning during the committee hearings this year and the year before, it does not appear that the government has a consistent policy as far as group centres are concerned.
If you go out to Gungahlin, you will find that in the last couple of years the government has created Gungahlin linear park. That has in it a piece of nice irrigated grass. I am not saying anything about that; all I am saying is that Green Square has a reason to have grass in it and, as the recommendation said, we need to have a consistent policy. Green Square, as the recommendation also said, is effectively the backyard of medium-density dwellers, unit dwellers, in Kingston. It is quite reasonable that they might like to have a bit of grass for their kids to play on while they have a cup of coffee.
Mr Stanhope said that in Ainslie the grass was staying because the IGA was paying for it, but that—
Mr Stanhope: I did not say grass.
MS LE COUTEUR: I thought it was the grass, but that whatever it was is staying because IGA is paying for it and the shop owners of Kingston were not prepared to pay for the grass. I would point out one very important difference between IGA and the shop owners of Kingston. The shop owners of Kingston, I understand, have only one-year leases because the area around there is going to be redeveloped but no-one really knows how. If you have got a one-year lease for something, I am not quite sure
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