Page 3541 - Week 08 - Thursday, 18 August 2011
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We will move forward with providing transit and priority measures along Barry Drive and Belconnen Way. Important work has already been completed along parts of that corridor and more work is to come, particularly in the area around Childers Street and along Barry Drive up to the intersection with the entrances to the Australian National University. These are very important projects.
Equally, of course, the Chief Minister has indicated that priority is now being given to greater transit along Northbourne Avenue. We have indicated that we have put light rail firmly back on the agenda as an option along the Northbourne Avenue corridor. My directorate, the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, is now working in extensive detail on options to potentially deliver light rail along that corridor from the city through to Dickson and beyond towards Gungahlin.
These are important initiatives on the part of the government. We see roads as vital pieces of infrastructure but only one part of the overall transport task. We will continue to work in every respect to deliver these projects in a timely fashion, in a cost-efficient fashion and in a fashion which makes sure that Canberrans continue to enjoy the high levels of mobility they enjoy at the moment.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (3.51): I am very pleased to speak today about this subject, continuing on from yesterday when we spoke about parking, which is a small part of the task of the transport task. I think what we are seeing today really is close to a clash in ideologies. It is certainly a clash in terms of time spans. The Greens are looking forward for transport solutions for the future. The Labor Party, to an extent, and the Liberal Party, to a much larger extent, seem to be looking for solutions for the past.
Looking at the past I was surprised to find that Mr Seselja started his speech by talking about the Gungahlin Drive extension. Mr Corbell also touched on it. So while it was not actually part of what I was prepared to say, I will speak on the subject. The Gungahlin Drive extension was, I have to agree with Mr Seselja, an example of poor decision making. Clearly, I was around as a member of the public when the decisions were being made. You will remember that there was a big push for light rail to go to Gungahlin in the first instance.
I can remember attending a public meeting at Gorman House which was addressed by Bob Winnel from Village Building. He was proposing light rail. I can remember a lot of opposition. I can remember, in fact, being told that I was a tool of the developers because I was supporting light rail at the time. But I think that with the benefit of hindsight everybody here could see that if we had light rail from Civic to Gungahlin we would have actually solved a lot of our transport problems. We would have solved the GDE problem because the vast majority of the transport of Gungahlin would have been able to be easily, quickly, without congestion conducted on a good light rail connection. Northbourne Avenue’s problems would be vastly less.
As Mr Corbell said, at last the government is finally going to look at light rail again down Northbourne Avenue. I would point out, as we all know of course, that light rail was part of Burley Griffin’s original plan for the ACT; so it was part of our past planning and it needs to be part of our future planning.
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