Page 1214 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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Lastly, in terms of transport, I have never tried to say that nothing has been done with transport over the last year. Clearly, that is not the case. What I was saying is that we have not significantly advanced the cause of sustainable transport in the ACT, and I think I will stand by that statement. I am very pleased that we have bought new buses, but I would point out, as my colleague Mr Coe pointed out, that we still have suburbs that do not have a bus service to them. While that is the situation, Mr Stanhope cannot really stand up and say that we have a great transport system.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella) (10.57): I want to take issue with a couple of things Ms Le Couteur has just said. The first one I want to talk about is the Green Square issue. I am offended, quite frankly, by this statement that the consultation could be regarded as a sham one. I was the minister responsible there for a while, and I can tell you that I had made no decisions whatever with respect to the outcome.
Mrs Dunne: We know what you think about consultation.
MR HARGREAVES: Oh, do go and get registration with dog control renewed, will you!
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves!
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, will you do something about Mrs Dunne, please, and remove the temptation for me to have to do it.
Mr SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, I would invite you to withdraw the previous comment.
MR HARGREAVES: What? I withdraw the comment that she should have her stuff at dog control renewed. She does have to have it renewed, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, do not push your luck.
MR HARGREAVES: All right, Mr Speaker. The thing is that the consultation process around Green Square was not a sham. The people who were affected by that were invited to the consultation process, but just because some people do not like the decision at the end of it does not make the consultation process a sham. A sham consultation process is when you can prove a decision is made before the event and that it is only lip-service that is shown, and this is not.
The other nonsense that is perpetrated is that Green Square is the little bit of green that is somebody’s backyard. I think it may have been mentioned before. That is an absolute nonsense. You have got Telopea Park which stretches for ages, all the way down to the lake. That is a decent backyard for people in multi-unit complexes. Madam Deputy Speaker, I worked near Manuka Oval for about three years, and I can tell you there are some poor parts of the day when—you are not going to believe this—there are not stacks of mums with little kids frolicking on the little lawns—this was in the 1970s when there was grass there—nobody. It is not that kind of demographic in that area. What is a sham is this sort of item in a report which gives credence to this sort of nonsense—that the only little piece of green in Kingston and the Kingston area is outside the restaurants. Come on, get over it!
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