Page 537 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018
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part of this motion, I call upon the ACT government to table this completed study by the close of business today. It was produced as an official response to more than 1,300 concerned Canberra residents. These residents deserve no less from their government than to know the full details of what has been learned and recommended in this study. I can think of no justifiable reason why the people of this territory should be kept in the dark on this issue.
I am not sure the situation could be any clearer. The people have petitioned this government for traffic lights. A dispassionate consideration of the statistics demands the installation of traffic lights. And now an expert study, we have been told, is recommending the installation of traffic lights. The only potential obstacle, and unfortunately it is a common one with this government, is access to adequate funding.
A Canberra Times article from September 2014 entitled “Belconnen roads among most dangerous in Canberra” specifically addressed the hazards of the intersection of Tillyard and Ginninderra drives but then also noted Roads ACT’s excuse that “funding limited the treatments they could use to fix the problems”. Minister Fitzharris raised the same point with me during last year’s annual reports hearings, noting that the installation of traffic lights is expensive. To this I have two things to say.
First, intentionally allowing car crashes to continue occurring at an intersection that is known to be hazardous is also expensive. Figures from Roads ACT from 2015 indicate that the cost of a property damage only crash in the ACT is $9,537. The cost of an injury crash is $363,250. Using these figures as a baseline, this means the total cost of all traffic accidents that occurred at the intersection of Tillyard and Ginninderra drives in the five years since the black spot program improvements has been $6,451,823. This figure does not include the 2017 crash data or any of the three crashes that are known to have happened there so far this year. Clearly the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of fixing things.
Second, the residents of west Belconnen have a pretty basic expectation of their government: they expect government revenue to be used to provide essential services, including keeping them safe. Under this government and previous Labor-Greens governments, my constituents who are fortunate enough to own their own homes have watched their rates skyrocket. Those who rent have seen their weekly rental payments soar so that their landlords can pay their rates. Those who rely on public transport are paying more for bus fares. Those who drive are paying more both for rego and for parking—and on it goes. My constituents understand the social contract between them and this government. And on this issue they expect action to be taken, not at some unknown point in the future but now, this year. And they want an assurance from the government that this is what will happen.
For this reason I call upon the ACT government to assure the residents of west Belconnen and the rest of the ACT that the traffic safety measures recommended in the recently completed feasibility study will be completely funded in the 2018-19 budget and to provide a specific date by which these traffic lights will be installed. Both responsible government and the good people of my electorate demand nothing less.
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