Page 2145 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Let us have a bit of evidence-based argument in this debate. Let us talk about some of the things they did not say. Mr Seselja talks about what we did not do in Coyne Street. Coyne Street has got to be all of 300 metres long. I suggest to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that Drakeford Drive might be a bit longer than that. He did not tell us about the $11 million duplication of Tharwa Drive through Banks and Conder that we completed in 2009. He did not tell everybody about the duplication of Athllon Drive, another $2 million, in 2010. He did not tell us about the $7 million put in the supplementary appropriation for the upgrade of Ashley Drive, to start later this year. He did not tell us about the $16 million on Lanyon Drive which goes from the Monaro Highway into Jerrabomberra. He did not tell us about that.
He did not tell us about our share of the $60 million to improve Pialligo Avenue and Morshead Drive. He did not tell us about the roundtable where I, as minister, got together all the stakeholders to do that and got the airport to contribute about $12 million to the project as well. He did not tell us about that. We are talking about multi millions of dollars being put in to this.
He talks about potholes and stuff like that. I heard Mrs Dunne going on about that. She bangs on about potholes—that they are dreadful, they are all over the city and they are popping up like rabbits. They are breeding, I suspect. He did not tell us that 88 per cent of the ACT roads have been assessed as being in good condition in the recent round of assessments. He did not tell us that in the last 12 months over 3,000 requests for pothole repairs and damage repairs have been responded to. He did not tell us that 2,000 stormwater run-off and flooding requests and 5,000 requests for street light damage repairs have been done. He did not tell us that our people in TAMS coordinate 280 sets of traffic lights. He did not tell us about what maintenance we do and how long it is—2,400 kilometres of community paths. Of that, 2,000 kilometres are footpaths and 400 kilometres are cycle paths.
The Chief Minister talked about the traffic warrant system. It was Mr Smyth, then Minister for Urban Services, who presided over the creation of that system.
Where are we going in the future? When I was listening to that, I heard 15, 10, 25 minutes of whingeing. Did I hear one suggestion of what we should do? Did I hear one idea of how much money we should apply to this? What priority? At least when we are talking about mental health and things there is a debate on what percentage it might be of the health budget. Is there any suggestion from those opposite here? No. If you go to their website and look at their policy on roads and urban services, you see a blank page. You could put “please turn over” on both sides of the page and there you would have the Liberal Party’s policy on roads. Ours would keep these guys busy for a week.
Madam Deputy Speaker, can I also say to you that they did not mention that we are talking about $288 million for the Majura parkway. The Chief Minister did. There is $14.7 million for a parkway upgrade. There is $7 million, again, for the Ashley Drive upgrade, and, as I mentioned before, $20 million for the extension to that going forward. What about the $50 million provided for the annual maintenance of road networks? These are big numbers. Do we hear anything from those opposite saying
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video