Page 211 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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department and, indeed, mentioned by the minister on occasion, that they are almost taking responsibility for the fact that the T2 lane is back on Adelaide Avenue, in spite of the fact that they spoke against it.
Let us see whether they support the T2 lane being implemented on Barry Drive. Unlike the government, we on this side of the chamber have spent this term focusing on getting better local services and at lower cost to the community, lower cost to taxpayers. This transport initiative is a great example of our commitment to turning Canberra into being the best local government in Australia.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services) (4.06): I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion today and I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“notes that:
(1) the Assembly passed a motion in November 2011 for the Government to, among other things, develop and publish Government guidelines for the appropriate locations and uses for transit lanes and bus lanes in the ACT, which have reference to safety, congestion and transport sustainability goals;
(2) the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services will be providing a report to the Assembly on T2 related issues on Thursday, in accordance with the Assembly motion of 16 November 2011; and
(3) Mr Coe’s motion is premature and inappropriate in terms of the Assembly motion that he supported just three months ago.”.
At this point in time we would support this motion once it is amended. Really, I think Mr Coe has gone to the issue where he actually welcomes the tabling of a report tomorrow, yet trying to move this and ask the Assembly to agree to this today without the benefit of that information. Indeed, I was not aware that Mr Coe was a road engineer or, indeed, that the Liberal Party had been able to conduct the necessary investigations into the appropriate use of converting bus lanes to transit lanes.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Order! Mr Coe, you are on a warning. You were on a warning here at 3 o’clock.
MS GALLAGHER: But there you go. The policy lightweights have dreamt up a policy just to try to get ahead of the actual expert advice that will be provided to the Assembly. So the government will not support the motion. We have moved an amendment. We believe the motion as written by Mr Coe is both premature and uninformed.
Just three months ago Mr Coe supported an Assembly motion that called on the government to develop and publish government guidelines for the appropriate
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