Page 1776 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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Then, of course, in addition to the poor quality, to add to the woes of motorists, they then have to look at some pretty ordinary artwork on the side of the road as well. The steel one at the Barton Highway overpass—incidentally, the same Barton Highway overpass that collapsed—at $250,000 really is quite amazing. When you look at what this government has done with regard to places like the Shepherd Centre and other very serious underfunding of core services, to then flippantly spend such huge amounts of money on things such as that Gungahlin Drive extension artwork really does sum up to a tee this government’s poor priorities. It is something which I think is indicative in this 2011-12 budget and it has been indicative throughout this government’s term of office since 2001.
Ken Keeling of Bruce wrote in the Canberra Times in October last year:
On Tuesday morning, as I drove northward towards Mitchell on the GDE, across the original Barton Highway bridge, I was struck by the incredibly powerful foresight of our Chief Minister.
Who else but our Great Leader could have envisaged, much less commissioned, a piece of Public Art (at untold expense to the ever-stretched ACT Public Purse) that so tellingly predicted the future—what I had previously seen only as a giant jumble of steel resembling a train wreck was in fact a prophet’s vision for foretelling the future of phase 2 of the GDE bridge.
Awesome!
Awesome, Mr Keeling says. I think Mr Keeling has summed up the situation pretty well.
In this motion we would like to know exactly when each section of the GDE will be completed. So many people in Canberra are asking this question and we think it is fair that the government does give us a pretty precise date on when that will be—not just the official opening but when it will actually be open for cars to travel on it. We want to know what the total cost of the project will be since 2001. We would also like to get a formal recognition of what the additional cost of the project would be—building a single-lane road and then duplicating it, as opposed to building a two-lane road in the first place. Finally we ask that the Chief Minister report back to this place by 30 June.
This road is iconic of this government. It is a failure. It is a disaster. But we do hope it gets completed as quickly as possible for the people of Gungahlin.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (12.16): I do welcome the opportunity to discuss the GDE, the Gungahlin Drive extension, the first major road constructed by any government since self-government. It is one of the major pieces of infrastructure delivered by an ACT government since self-government. Indeed, it is a road and a project the government is proud of.
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