Page 1384 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 24 March 2010
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Liberals refused to provide on-road cycle paths. We are doing our best. We are making up for the mistakes of the past.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Stanhope, Ms Le Couteur did not invite you to compare your government’s performance with a previous government’s.
MR STANHOPE: I am not. I am explaining the difficulty of actually achieving exactly what it is that Ms Le Couteur—
Mr Hanson: In a very honest and disingenuous—
MR STANHOPE: Ms Le Couteur and I share more than just a joint commitment expressed through the parliamentary agreement; we share a very keen commitment to cycling. We are both keen cyclists. I know exactly what it is that Ms Le Couteur is saying; I know from personal experience, as does Ms Le Couteur. There are some places, particularly on roundabouts and some other tricky places to retrofit, where all of a sudden bike paths do disappear and one is forced to whiz back onto the road or go cross-country. It is disconcerting and it is unfortunate, but some of the engineering solutions to some of those problems are enormously expensive. As funding permits, as resources permit, I do hope over time that we will deal with all of those glitches in some of the difficult places.
Ms Le Couteur, you cannot dispute this government’s commitment to cycling, to cycling infrastructure. I do hope, even within the next two weeks, to be able to ride on the new $900,000 cycle path through Jerrabomberra. We are hoping that that will be completed. That is another $900,000 investment in cycling and cycling infrastructure.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Coe?
MR COE: Of the 700 kilometres that you mentioned, Chief Minister, what proportion is footpaths or community shared paths as opposed to bike paths?
MR STANHOPE: The most significant proportion of the 700 kilometres is footpaths, mostly in expanding areas of Canberra.
Mr Hanson: New suburbs built by developers. Do you take credit for that?
MR STANHOPE: I do not have the length but in relation to all new major roads now being constructed—I would have to get the distance; for instance, major inner suburban routes, major roads—we now as a matter of course provide on-road cycling. What I will do, Mr Coe, because I know of your abiding interest in measures and distances and how many metres of green paint have been painted before traffic lights—
Mr Coe: At $100 a square metre.
MR STANHOPE: and what is the cost—
Mr Coe: How is that red paint on Barry Drive going, Jon? How is that red paint?
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