Page 2133 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
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The list goes on and on and on. We know of disappointment and safety concerns expressed by Hall residents as a result of the government’s decision to develop on-road cycling paths as part of the Clarrie Hermes Drive extension. There were safety concerns expressed by pedestrians and motorists as a result of a lack of marked pedestrian crossing points. And we have seen numerous members of the community saying, “This government should actually focus on this as a priority.”
No doubt when Ms Gallagher speaks she will talk about the kilometres of roads that have been done, and that is all well and good. This is core business for the government, and yet we see so many black spots and so many problems around the city.
I put it to the Assembly, and we certainly contend, that it is because this government has had its priorities wrong in terms of where it has spent our money that we have seen our roads network degraded. We have traditionally had a very good roads network and it has gradually been getting less so over the last decade. There are some areas of Canberra where the roads network is still reasonable, but we are increasingly seeing pressures. We have not seen the government respond to those pressures, except when it is absolutely forced to, as is the case with areas like Gungahlin Drive. It waits until there is already a significant problem and then slowly, slowly it addresses it—and in many cases, in many of the examples I have cited, it simply does not address it.
Instead of addressing some of the issues that are in Tuggeranong, the government spent $400,000 on the bogong moths on Drakeford Drive. Instead of spending and addressing some of those issues in Belconnen, they spent money on the owl. We see the $5 million that they threw away chasing the government office building. We point to tens of millions of dollars in blow-outs in projects because this government cannot manage. All of that has a cost. If you waste money, as this government has become so expert at through its cost overruns, through its poor priorities, through its poor decisions, there is not enough money left to focus on the really important things: local solutions, looking after people in their neighbourhoods, addressing the real issues. And one of those real issues is the state of our roads in the ACT.
As I said earlier, at self-government we inherited, and this government in 2001 inherited, a very good roads network. That has gradually got worse. The congestion has gradually grown in many parts of Canberra, and this government has not addressed it. We would simply take the opportunity in this matter of public importance to put the issue on the Assembly’s agenda and to draw a stark contrast between our approach and that of the Labor Party. We know the Greens’ approach. The Greens’ approach is not to build roads. They would not have built the Gungahlin Drive extension at all.
The difference in approach between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party in this place is that we believe this should be prioritised higher than the government currently puts it. We believe that it is more important than many of the things that this government has spent money on, and that if it had not wasted money in a number of areas, if it had controlled its costs, particularly in many of its capital projects, there would be more road upgrades, people would not be as frustrated in traffic and there would not be as many safety issues that are coming back to us.
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