Page 2233 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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That is exactly where the Greens are at. They do not like cars, they do not like roads and they have this view that everybody should be able to catch a bus that is going to drive past their corner every five minutes. It is fanciful, and we know that the cost of that is simply unaffordable for the people of the ACT. So let us build this road. Let us make it clear what we support. Do we support this road—yes or no? Let us support Mr Coe’s motion that asks that very question.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (11.37): I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the Majura parkway, a very significant project for our community and also our region—we are a member of the region—and on the role that this road, when finished, will play in supporting both Canberra residents but also national traffic and our regional economy.
The government are determined to build the Majura parkway for many of the reasons that have already been outlined this morning. Indeed, so determined are we that we have included very transparently allocations for our share of the road—$144 million—to progress the parkway in the budget currently being considered before the Assembly. But we are also determined to get federal funding assistance to build this road. It is a road with a national role and, therefore, we believe the federal government needs to pay its fair share of the delivery of this major national piece of infrastructure. It is one of the priority projects for our government, and I outlined that yesterday in the government priorities.
I think it is important that—I support the efforts of Dr Bourke in bringing to the Assembly this motion today—in supporting my advocacy at federal parliament I have very clear support from all members of the elected parliament here in the ACT. I have been spending a fair bit of time on this over the past year. Indeed, I have had numbers of meetings with the infrastructure minister, Minister Albanese. I have had meetings with the federal Treasurer. I have now met with the Prime Minister. I have met with the minister for territories, Simon Crean, in the last week as well. I have very much been putting forward the government’s view. It is the government’s view that this road is important, supported, of course, by the extensive analysis that has been done by our public service, particularly through Roads ACT, but also through the ranking of this project through Infrastructure Australia’s own extremely thorough processes.
I think it is a little unfortunate that the Greens are running the line that there has not been enough analysis and data collected around this road. Perhaps not for their purposes or for their argument, but for the purposes of planning a road system for the ACT and surrounding region, this project has been through far more analysis than other roads would be given, particularly as it has gone through the very detailed analysis of Infrastructure Australia.
As my colleague Mr Corbell said, it is not an either/or; it does not mean because you build the parkway to the specifications that are required based on the data that we have that you take your eye off other improvements in delivering a sustainable public transport system. You can do both and, indeed, we need to do both. We cannot solve some of the pressures around traffic and traffic congestion not only for our own
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