Greater Hobart Traffic Congestion Select Committee Final Report

Ms WEBB (Nelson) – Thank you, Mr President, and thank you to the member for Hobart for that comprehensive overview.  I  will speak very briefly on the report as a member of the committee.  As the member for Hobart identified, we ended up being a rather small committee, but we are no less confident that there is value in the report we have provided.  I also extend my thanks to the members who came and went on that committee, and particularly to the staff who assisted us with the administration of that committee.

I  join with the member for Hobart in thanking all those members of the Tasmanian community who participated by making submissions and coming to present evidence in hearings to the committee.  It was very pleasing to have a really strong level of participation, and to draw on expertise and observations from across many parts of the Greater Hobart community, particularly from people who had specific expertise in a range of areas relevant to this committee.

As noted by the member for Hobart, there was an extensive list of reports and studies and strategies and the like that were relevant to this area of investigation and our attention was drawn to all of them.  In some instances, it was quite overwhelming to try and assimilate the information provided across many overlapping and similar documents.

Mr Valentine – We could not assimilate everything that they offered, could we, in terms of time required?

Ms WEBB – Indeed.  We were not able to fully do that; but we did note that body of work was there and that a lot of thinking and planning has gone into this area.  It led us to identify that one of the key challenges was not so much a lack of knowledge and understanding about this area, as it was about whose responsibility it is to take action and make decisions, and how that is coordinated, because of the different levels of government involved and the different stakeholders involved.  That, of course, prompted us and led us to the first recommendation in the report which is around that coordinating entity to try and draw that function together.  That is important, because a lot of time and energy can go into policy thinking and working in a space like this, and can then potentially not be moved through to effective implementation because of the lack of an identifiable point of responsibility and coordination.

The member for Hobart has gone through the details of that first recommendation, and has provided a very comprehensive overview of the some of the findings from the report and also of each of the key recommendations, so I  am not going to rehash that area.  I  endorse the comments that the member for Hobart has made, and I encourage other members and members of the community to engage with this report.  I  look forward to responses to the work that has been done, from the Government and others in the community or in this place.

I  conclude my remarks on that note, and thank the member for Hobart particularly for his leadership when he took over the role as Chair of the Committee.  I  hope we can see some progress made in this area, because we know it is an urgent challenge that is becoming more urgent by the day.

I will leave my remarks at that.

View the Final Report here