Page 3689 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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weight, yet apparently we do not have the money to keep our playgrounds maintained or replaced to ensure an active lifestyle is promoted for our children. A constituent who wrote to me stated:
This time I was told there were no plans to replace the playground and that the current condition of the playground was “fit for purpose”. Any person who has young children would completely disagree as the playground is not safe and the equipment is very run down.
When I received a response from the minister regarding a playground which had been removed, the minister said:
At the time of the forward design study it was anticipated construction of the replacement playground would be undertaken in 2012/13 …
The letter from the minister then went on to say that another playground took precedence and the replacement of this playground was deferred. I understand that money does not grow on trees, but I reiterate that I believe the government have their priorities wrong.
We can talk about roads. A letter to the editor published in the Canberra Times on 15 June, when referring to the Minister for TAMS, stated:
… his department obviously doesn’t have the funds to undertake basic road maintenance for fixing potholes, corrugations and rough surfaces, some of which have been evident for almost 12 months.
Another constituent who contacted me a few months ago in a letter wrote:
When potholes are repaired they should be repaired properly. The common practice of dropping a “dollop” of tarmac into the hole and flattening it is a waste of time and money.
This constituent went on to say that a large pothole at the end of her street was treated four or five times in this manner before it was finally repaired properly. Again, I reiterate that I know full well that we only have a limited pool of money to run the territory, but what I would say, along with many of my colleagues, is that this government is spending the money in the wrong way and in the wrong places. Minister Corbell tells us how great we are with our 90 per cent renewable energy targets and light rail, but we cannot maintain our own city properly.
We can also talk about grass mowing. This is another area that in theory seems simple, but we cannot seem to get it right. We all know from our own gardens, if nothing else, that some times of the year the grass grows faster than other times. Sometimes it rains more than other times, so mowing can get delayed and the grass grows very quickly. But instead of long and unkempt grass being an anomaly here and there, it seems to be a more-often-than-not situation. More often than not the grass is not mown frequently enough. More often than not it looks unmaintained and overgrown long before it gets cut.
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