Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

The policy which is being implemented today with this motion to begin works in the Parliamentary Triangle on paid parking infrastructure is bad government policy. It amounts to an imposition of a very heavy cost on a large number of users of the Parliamentary Triangle, particularly public servants and others using national institutions in that area. It comes for an area of Canberra in which there is a general lack of commercial or community services available to users of the zone. Services which are provided are difficult to access and usually come with a cost premium. The public transport alternatives available to workers in the zone are slow and inflexible, insufficient in frequency and stops, disorganised in peak times and wholly inadequate out of peak times. However, the coalition will not be opposing the motion, because it has been linked to the raising of $73 million in revenue and it is irresponsible to oppose the government's achieving that goal.