Page 3710 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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(h) the Canberra Liberals have committed to opposing light rail but have failed to outline their alternative transport and urban renewal policy for Canberra, particularly in relation to the high growth corridor from Gungahlin to the City; and
(i) by 2031 commuters from Gungahlin to the City will spend almost two hours each day in their cars commuting, if solutions like light rail are not implemented;
(3) resolves that transport and urban renewal policies must allow for increased transport demand that will result from population growth across Canberra over the next two decades; and
(4) specifically rules out:
(a) any plans to build Monash Drive to accommodate the growth in traffic from Gungahlin to Civic and beyond;
(b) policies that result in rat running through inner north Canberra and Belconnen suburbs;
(c) expansion of Northbourne Avenue by building an additional two or four traffic lanes for buses and/or general traffic; and
(d) policies that force Gungahlin residents to sit in congested traffic for up to two hours each day as there is no other alternative transport infrastructure available.
I would like the opposition to study this motion in some detail, not just throw it away with a three-word slogan like “can the tram”. This motion is about governing for all Canberrans, developing a modern, well-planned and vibrant city. Government is about making choices for the future of this city that will, in the long term, benefit all Canberrans in the north, the south, the east and the west of Canberra. It is about the juggling of priorities and managing to keep many balls in the air at once. That is what good governments, such as this one, do consistently. They plan, they multitask, they look for long-term benefits and spinoffs from major projects. Government is the hard grind of working at it every day and in every way striving to make this city better and better. Unlike oppositions, governments have to walk and chew gum at the same time. The three-word slogans of opposition do not translate well into government.
Members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, members. If you want to have conversations, take them outside.
DR BOURKE: Canberrans have already seen the problems the federal Liberals have had transitioning from oppositional slogans to governing and making real choices in the real world and having to expect the unexpected. “Axe the tax”, like “can the tram”, is catchy but it has not proved to be an economic solution to all the economic woes the federal Liberal government suggested it would be. My colleagues today will speak of the breadth of ongoing work of governing for Canberrans and of the exciting plans for the future as we take this city into its second century.
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