Page 542 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

(c) Transport Canberra and City Services has received a detailed study of the Tillyard Drive intersections with Ginninderra Drive and Lhotsky Street and is currently considering the findings, including the recommendation for installation of traffic signals at both intersections; and

(3) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) continue to implement the priority safety measures as outlined in the Residential Street Improvement Program for Tillyard Drive and surrounding streets in Charnwood, Flynn and Fraser;

(b) table the final report which includes the detailed study of the intersections of Tillyard Drive with Ginninderra Drive and Lhotsky Street during the next sitting of the Assembly; and

MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (5.23): I would like to thank Mrs Kikkert for bringing this intersection to the attention of members. It is not in my electorate, and I am not familiar with it. I do believe I have been there, but I am not very familiar with it, as I am obviously more familiar with intersections closer to home in Woden, Weston or Kambah. Following the motion, and from the research my office has done, it does sound as though the intersection needs attention. The rate of crashes, particularly crashes that cause injuries, is a concern. But it does seem to me that this intersection is getting attention from the government.

I understand that back in 2010 the government sought federal black spot funding for upgrades. Upgrades were then done in 2011. As Mrs Kikkert’s motion points out, the rate of crashes has increased since those upgrades. Now the government is taking two further sets of actions. First, it is doing works under the residential street improvement program in the area around the Tillyard and Ginninderra intersection. Second, it has put the intersection on its road safety improvement program list of top 10 intersections that need work. I understand that it is No 8 on the list. It also clearly has engineering work underway to decide what should happen next; that is the study that I understand the motion refers to.

This seems to me like a fairly reasonable and correct process. It does not sound to me as though this intersection has actually been forgotten. Madam Assistant Speaker, this is one reason why I will be supporting Minister Fitzharris’s amendment to Mrs Kikkert’s motion.

The second reason I will be supporting the government amendment is to do with Mrs Kikkert’s paragraph 3(b). This point basically commits the government to funding a major intersection upgrade in this coming budget. I cannot agree with this element. Minister Fitzharris gave quite a discussion as to why it was not really within the scope and the purview of the Assembly, with this amount of consideration, to agree with that statement. The other way of putting it is this: all of us here have to remember that the budget is not a magic pudding. The government has not got unlimited funds; new expenditure has to be funded through either new taxes or cuts to something else. In the case of the motion that we are debating here, the likely impact is that money would be diverted from other infrastructure projects.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video