Ms BURNET (Clark) – Thank you, Speaker. I want to make three points and just point out that tomorrow is Ride2Work Day around Tasmania, but particularly two breakfasts are occurring in the south at Kingston and Mawson Place. My colleague Mr Bayley will be there again, and possibly Mr Willie. I also hope to see the minister for Transport at the Ride2Work Day because one of the things that occurred over the past few days is the defunding of some integral bike infrastructure at the western end of Collins Street, which was a tactical urban response. Collins Street is one of the main spines for pedestrians and bike riders coming into the city, moving from east to west or west to east.
It was very unfortunate that in July, with great grand fanfare, the Minister for Transport announced that there would be $170,000 spent on this project in conjunction with the City of Hobart. The state government had been working very hard over the years with the City of Hobart to deliver this project. Lo and behold, three months later, the minister decides to pull that funding last week, all of a sudden, with no fanfare. Last night, the City of Hobart decided to fund the project themselves. It should not be up to a city to do the work that the state government should be doing. They should not have to lead that urban renewal program but here we are.
At the other end of Collins Street, there is a proposed significant 200-metre-span walkway, an active transport link to the proposed stadium. Now, this is unfunded; it is an important part of the stadium infrastructure, but it is unfunded at this stage. The amount of money that is estimated for it to cost is between $44 million and $56.5 million. It will be important because it will mean that those people who come down from the northwest or come from the north and want to park in the city to go to any event at the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium will park in the city and walk up Collins Street or ride their bikes along that bridge to the stadium. That is proposed, it is unfunded. We have this unfortunate vanity project and it really needs to be pointed out that those priorities that make the lives better for everyday Tasmanians should be funded.
We have a number of other cycle and active transport infrastructure projects supposedly funded that the minister talked of today and there is $780,000 worth of funds for smaller projects, and I wonder how many of those will be funded. It is really important that the government reprioritises and makes sure that they are prioritising things that are good social infrastructure and infrastructure projects for everyday Tasmanians.
