Page 2249 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 22 June 2011
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Mr Coe said that Gungahlin is getting a raw deal. It is certainly getting a raw deal from the Canberra Liberals, who do not think that the people in the north of Canberra, particularly Gungahlin, deserve reliable, frequent public transport which will make it faster and cheaper for them to get to and from work and school.
Mr Coe also made an interesting statement that the only way you can build public transport infrastructure is to build roads—it is the only thing you can do. Perhaps Mr Coe needs to look to the example of Brisbane, where they have put in significant bus infrastructure capital works, with busways, park and rides—
Mrs Dunne: That is a road.
MS BRESNAN: It is actually not a road. Why don’t you want to look at what it actually is. It is a busway, and it is a busway that can incorporate a change in technology. If light rail is brought into Brisbane, it will be able to incorporate that. This was championed by a Liberal lord mayor. Perhaps Mr Coe could use some of his study travel budget to visit Brisbane and see what has been done there.
Finally, let me go to a fact that has not been mentioned.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, members. Order!
MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Let me go to a fact that we have not have had any great discussion about. We still have no commitment from the federal government to fund the freeway. Yet both the government and the Canberra Liberals are prepared to blindly go on and commit $144 million of ACT taxpayers’ money to do something that will not solve congestion problems and when we have no guarantee that it will actually happen. If the federal government think this is such an important project, why don’t they fund the cost of it and allow the government here in the ACT to invest in a rapid public transport system that would address congestion in the north of Canberra.
I have to say—I do not know if it is a first; it is probably a first—that it was wonderful to hear Mr Hanson positively quoting a government document with the EIS. It was good to also hear the 1970s fact—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, members. Let’s hear Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It was also good to hear the 1970s fact quoted not just by Dr Bourke but by Mr Hanson. Both the Labor and Liberal parties seem to be looking for inspiration to a policy from 40 years ago for their transport policy. It is laughable that Mr Hanson accused the Greens of being in the past when their idea of transport planning was from the 1970s. Now at least we know where they get their policy inspiration from.
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