Page 1511 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014

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I know the minister would prefer that Canberrans not contact their local MLAs and instead just utilise the “fix my street” facility on the ACT government website. But not all Canberrans, and especially not older Canberrans, are comfortable doing that. As Minister for Ageing, he should appreciate that. But even when residents use that facility, such as for street light repair, and even when they write to their local MLA, as Mirinjani residents did, they still do not get things fixed. These are the same Canberrans who are paying increasingly high rates.

Our motion today calls on the government to become more transparent in their management of such issues. We have asked that the government:

(a) publish current maintenance schedules up until the end of this calendar year by the next sitting period in June 2014;

(b) publish updates to maintenance schedules quarterly; and

This is not an unreasonable request, Mr Rattenbury. It does not have budgetary implications but it does urge transparency. There is no reason why both the Greens minister and Labor ministers and MLAs should not support it. It goes to good governance and transparency in service provision—nothing more, nothing less. That is what we are asking for.

Mr Rattenbury, I urge you to consider the motion that we put before you, which is, as I said, not an unreasonable request. We are simply asking for more transparency so that people can see and know when to expect the things that they are told would be fixed, so that they can see that the government has planned to do just that. Governance and transparency in service provision are something we are asking for, as I mentioned—nothing more, nothing less than that, Mr Rattenbury. I commend this motion to the Assembly.

MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for Ageing) (5.24): I would like to thank Mr Doszpot for bringing forward this motion today because I think it is a welcome opportunity to speak about the upkeep of our paths. I should say, of course, that I am happy to organise a briefing for Mr Doszpot, or any other MLAs, at any time so that he can discuss issues like this with TAMS officials and get the complete detail, including all of the complexities about it.

At the beginning of this year I invited all MLAs to attend a session with Roads ACT here in the Assembly. The session was notionally about how Roads ACT deals with the prioritisation of residential traffic upgrades but also how it prioritises safety upgrades as well as other infrastructure like footpaths and shared paths. I thank the MLAs who attended. Ms Lawder was there from the Liberal Party and several MLAs attended from the Labor Party. Staff members from other Liberal offices attended, including from Mr Doszpot’s office, but, unfortunately, Mr Doszpot was evidently not

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