Mr ELFERINK - 2002-06-20
On 26 February in this Chamber I tabled a photograph of a man standing thigh deep in a hole on the Docker River Road. I now seek leave to table another photograph from late last month.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: This is a photograph of a car wrecked on the side of the same road. Minister, when are you going to fix this road, and are you going to fix this road before somebody gets killed?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is very cute for the other side to actually complain about roads not done in time. When we came to power we found out that the money allocated for repair and maintenance was only going to last for three months. We had to put up the money - as the member for Katherine pointed out yesterday, quite rightly - from other departments to cover some of these deficits. These monies were enough for this - $11m was actually allocated to my department from other departments in order to attend to some of the roads that needed urgent attention. I am not talking about backwoods roads, I am talking about main roads like the Stuart Highway: replace or fix bitumen, because nothing was done. We had money to do nothing. We did not even have money to collect dead kangaroos from the street, because you have left nothing - double zero.
We prioritise the roads, we proceed to fix them. We recently allocated $0.75m for repair and maintenance of roads, and this money is being spent slowly around the Territory. If you take a drive around Darwin, or outside Darwin to Katherine - everywhere - you will see there are road crews working, repairing the roads that had been left in terrible condition. That road will be fixed, but we have to prioritise. I cannot let major roads be destroyed, I fixed roads that have small loads of traffic. We have roads that actually have been left unattended for years and years. It will be fixed, but we have to prioritise what we are doing. We will fix it when we reach that area. It will be fixed.
Mr STIRLING (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I would ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: This is a photograph of a car wrecked on the side of the same road. Minister, when are you going to fix this road, and are you going to fix this road before somebody gets killed?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is very cute for the other side to actually complain about roads not done in time. When we came to power we found out that the money allocated for repair and maintenance was only going to last for three months. We had to put up the money - as the member for Katherine pointed out yesterday, quite rightly - from other departments to cover some of these deficits. These monies were enough for this - $11m was actually allocated to my department from other departments in order to attend to some of the roads that needed urgent attention. I am not talking about backwoods roads, I am talking about main roads like the Stuart Highway: replace or fix bitumen, because nothing was done. We had money to do nothing. We did not even have money to collect dead kangaroos from the street, because you have left nothing - double zero.
We prioritise the roads, we proceed to fix them. We recently allocated $0.75m for repair and maintenance of roads, and this money is being spent slowly around the Territory. If you take a drive around Darwin, or outside Darwin to Katherine - everywhere - you will see there are road crews working, repairing the roads that had been left in terrible condition. That road will be fixed, but we have to prioritise. I cannot let major roads be destroyed, I fixed roads that have small loads of traffic. We have roads that actually have been left unattended for years and years. It will be fixed, but we have to prioritise what we are doing. We will fix it when we reach that area. It will be fixed.
Mr STIRLING (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I would ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016