Matter of Urgent Public Importance

Mr DEAN ( Windermere - Motion) - Madam President, I move -

That the Council do now adjourn for the purpose of discussing a matter of urgent public importance, namely the Dilston bypass, and that the Legislative Council calls on the Government to intervene in the current dispute between the Launceston City Council, the community and Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources in ensuring that the bypass is built with safe accesses, including at least one roundabout.

Madam President, thank you for accepting this issue as a matter of public importance; it is indeed a very important matter. The Dilston bypass and specifically the accesses onto and off the new section of highway is a matter of public importance because it impacts directly on the safety of all road users travelling on the East Tamar Highway, and all those people living in the Dilston, Windermere, Swan Bay and Hillwood areas specifically.

These areas are growing and with further larger housing developments being considered for that area the population will increase dramatically over the next few years. It is also very clear that the traffic using the East Tamar Highway also will increase dramatically over the next few years. I refer to a media release from TasPorts on 23 December 2008, and I quote:

'The Tasmanian Ports Corporation (Tasports) says that the $150 million Bell Bay deep water reclamation project will create 150 jobs in Tasmania and provide a $240 million impetus to the State's economy.'

I will quote some other sections:

'The project will see the reclamation of 8.4 ha to allow the development of an efficient container terminal at Bell Bay with sufficient backup land to enable storage and management of containers.'

They are talking about the future growth of the Bell Bay port, the only international port in Tasmania. About three years ago we were told that by the year 2020 imports/exports from the Bell Bay port would double. It was about three years ago that we were told that and given that information. That equates to considerably more truck movements on the East Tamar Highway. It is already a very busy highway because it services the Bell Bay area, Rio Tinto, George Town and the north east coast of Tasmania.

This development will see a number of standing containers per annum; that international port will accommodate something like 650 000 containers annually. If you start looking at the number of truck movements required to move those containers on the East Tamar Highway, it works out at - and perhaps my sums are not all that great, perhaps a truck every two minutes on the highway, and we are looking at just the working times. So it is a tremendous increase in the use of the East Tamar Highway.

We certainly commend DIER and the State Government for including the Dilston bypass in the changes that are currently occurring to the East Tamar Highway because that bypass is needed. In the main the public support it; only one person has said to me that the bypass is not needed - only one person in that whole region. Very clearly it is needed because that section of road to be bypassed is a black spot. In fact the whole area is a black spot; over the past years there have been recorded, to my knowledge, 17 fatalities on the section of road to be bypassed. That is an enormous number of fatalities, and they are just the fatalities. On top of that you have the serious injury accidents and other minor accidents. On two occasions local identities were killed, unfortunately, on that stretch of road. In a previous profession I attended some of those fatalities and serious accidents.

Madam President, the bypass is certainly needed, and the sooner and the quicker the bypass is built the better it will be for everybody in that region. It is a sad situation that the process that we have gone through so far has in fact slowed down that process. Every day we run the real risk of further accidents occurring there.

At a council meeting recently a lady stood up and said that they do not want and will not tolerate another black spot being built. That is very clearly what it would be if the position that we are currently faced with - that is, DIER's position of requiring two 'seagull' intersections, that is the word that they use because they are extended intersections which provide a little more comfort for people accessing the road, or would do -

Mr Hall - Sorry, what sort of intersections are those?

Mr DEAN - They are referred to as a seagull intersection.

Mr Hall - Can you explain that, please?

Mr DEAN - I tried to the other day and I did not do it very well. It allows for easier access on and off, using that intersection. It is in the shape of wings of a seagull in the way that traffic merges and moves onto it. I cannot do much better than that; perhaps the Leader could.

Mr Parkinson - No, I am waiting for you to explain it.

Mr Hall - We are talking about traffic coming in, four lanes -

Mr DEAN - To finish what I was saying, the lady said, 'We cannot and will not tolerate another black spot being deliberately and purposely built because once we have a black spot, history tells us that it will be three, five or probably 10 years before it will be erased'. There will be a considerable period of time getting the evidence together to satisfy all concerned that it is a black spot and therefore we need to do something more about it. She is saying, once we have it, we will have it for a long time.

That comment was made by this lady to the Launceston City Council about a fortnight or so ago. I need to identify the bypass for the information of members who may not be as conversant as I am with it. The East Tamar Highway Dilston bypass consists of approximately 9.4 kilometres of upgraded road. It runs from, for those that know the area, Barnards Creek near Rocherlea to Doctors Hill to the north, as I said, 9.4 kilometres just past the Los Angeles Road. It takes out a whole poor section of the East Tamar Highway and I have already referred to that.

As I said, members of the public are anxious that it be built. As background on what has happened so far, this matter has been around for a long time. It came to the Launceston City Council in 2008 as a development application for the council to consider certain parts of the development of the road being built in that area. They had to rezone certain areas and do other things to accommodate it. As a part of that, council was also able to make a decision in relation to safety aspects of the road. On that occasion, in 2008, in a matter that I moved, the decision was that the road be built with roundabouts because, at that stage, there was a lot of outcry from the public about it. The council decision was unanimous that it be built with roundabouts; it was approved.

Following that, Madam President, it was taken to the RPDC. The RPDC deemed that they were unable to process the matter and they referred it back to the Launceston City Council. The council had to go through the process again. In fact, a fortnight Monday ago, it was re-listed in council; they went through almost the identical process again and the same decision was made. That is, that the road be built with safe accesses on to and off the new highway. That has given a little bit of background in relation to it.

The whole way through this process, Madam President, DIER have been adamant that they are right, adamant that the road should be built with intersections so they have not listened to the public and/or the community. I think an integrated access - that is, underpass-overpass - would be the best access, but the public are very reasonable in this situation. They accept the position of DIER, that is, that it would be too costly. However, they have also asked why we should weigh cost against the lives of people. They said to DIER they would be happy, content to receive a roundabout. They said they would even accept one safe access on and off this road and possibly at the southern end, that is, the Rocherlea end of the new section of roadway because that is -

Mr Hall - Through you, Madam President - can I ask the honourable member, has that been costed against two seagull intersections; one roundabout as compared to two seagull intersections?

Mr DEAN - It has and the cost is higher, however there is only a minimal cost for putting a roundabout in. The land has already been purchased or acquired by DIER, as I understand it, to include a roundabout if that should be needed at some later stage. Another point that was made was that if the T-intersections prove not to be satisfactory, there is extra land and a roundabout could be included. Why not do it in the first place?

[11.15 a.m.]
I was in the Windermere shop last Sunday and a lady there was fairly strong in her comments to me about what should happen with the bypass. She said she has a young daughter and will not allow her daughter to travel on the school bus because it has to access this highway, particularly in the winter period. She said, 'I will not put my daughter at risk'.

I am not going to be here for a long period, other than to put the facts as I know them and the position that we are currently confronting. I want to quote from a letter written by the school bus operator, Mr Rex Sainty, who is well-known by all the northern members in particular and would be known by a number of other members as well:

'We the undersigned bus operators wish to place on record before the RPDC and others our concerns surrounding the above proposed intersection by proxy.

From the traffic data provided it's evident that a school bus will need to pass across two lanes and complete a right turn in low gear from a standing start within 4 seconds. If visibility is good the design predicts a margin of safety of 5 seconds when the highway is empty down to a possible 0.5 of a second if it is busy. We need to function at peak traffic time and are confident that the high speeds and small margins will place unrealistic demands even before fog and morning sunlight is factored. One slight misjudgement on our part could incur a multiple manslaughter charge.

We look to our road designers to share some of our considerable responsibilities by providing a real highway crossing that will have an enviable safety record rather than another engineered Black Spot.'

The Australian Road Rules and laws as I understand them are normally designed for the average conditions and average position of an area of a State. The designs are set to specifications designed to fit the average circumstances of an area. The Tamar Valley is well known not to fit into that category. It is not the norm; it is not the average type of locality when you look at weather conditions and everything else that applies to an area. It has been known for many years that the Tamar Valley has an inversion layer. That is why the environmental conditions, the atmospheric problems that we read so much about, are evident in Launceston, but not evident, as I understand it, in any other area in Tasmania. That is why Launceston has the wood heater buy-back program to try to minimise the adverse environmental conditions that so frequently occur within the winter period because of that inversion layer. The fogs - I should not be saying this probably - in Launceston unfortunately sometimes lie around until midday; that is not unusual. It is not a case of fog that is there until eight o'clock, nine o'clock in the morning; it is there at times much longer than that. It is interesting - and I do have some photographs, which Hansard cannot pick up but perhaps our new system can - which indicate the foggy conditions in this area where this road will be built. This photograph was taken in May of last year.

Mr Finch - You have done this for television, haven't you?

Mr DEAN - No, I have not done it for television, not at all. It is a point I am wanting to make. Also, I can show these photographs which indicate an empty log truck proceeding in that same area that I am talking about -

Mr Aird - Were you a teacher? Show and tell?

Mr DEAN - in very foggy conditions. I might add, this area is also subject to ice and, once again, I just happen to have some photographs identifying the icy conditions -

Members interjecting.

Mr Finch - If you pull out some video footage, that will be the end of it.

Mr DEAN - once again, taken on 23 May last year.

Mr Parkinson - How will a roundabout overcome the ice problem?

Mr DEAN - I am getting to the point now. We have some fairly treacherous conditions in that area during winter and at other times.

Mr Parkinson - Vehicles travelling in circles don't negotiate ice very well.

Mr DEAN - The position being put to the council and the position put to the people has been that it is not the desire of DIER to want to slow down traffic on that highway. It is a 100 kilometres an hour highway. That is the limit in this area. In fact, DIER were approached to consider 80 kilometres an hour through the intersections. What they have said is, 'No, we won't consider that. We are not going to slow this traffic down'.

A school bus coming out of the southern intersection, if I can take that into account, the Rocherlea end, has to cross two lanes of traffic, travelling north, travelling at, in many cases, 100 kilometres an hour. Two lanes they have to cross. They then have to watch out for vehicles travelling south and turning right into Dilston. They have to watch that as well and then they have a lane that allows them to travel south and continues as a second lane, a slip lane.

Mrs Jamieson - So what would have happened with that log truck?

Mr DEAN - The slip lane continues as a second lane. They come into a lane, the road then comes into two lanes travelling south from that intersection. With these foggy conditions that apply in this area and that we so frequently see there and, I might add, I am in the area a lot -

Mr Hall - You live there, don't you?

Mr DEAN - I do not live there but a member of my family does have a property there. But I live close by.

Ms Thorp - Through you, Madam President - just out of curiosity, is the Launceston council contributing to this project at all?

Mr DEAN - Financially, no, and why should it?

Ms Thorp - I am just wondering, if it wants particular additions to the road that DIER engineers have obviously deemed not necessary, perhaps it would like to make a contribution.

Mr DEAN - This is a Federally-funded activity, $43 million has been set aside for the construction of this bypass. Federal moneys and there are some State moneys there as well. That is why I said, I applaud the Government and I applaud DIER for putting in the bypass and for wanting to build the bypass. There is no argument about that.

Mrs Jamieson - Through you, Madam President - had we had a pulp mill up and running, had these issues not been addressed then we would have had even more problems, would we not, with log trucks coming from both directions?

Mr DEAN - It is erroneous that this is being done for a pulp mill. That is not the position at all and I accept DIER's information in relation to that. It is being done for other purposes. It is being done for the increased traffic that will be using that area. It is being done to remove black spots. It is being done to remove a dangerous area of road and also, to work in with the other works that are being done on the East Tamar Highway.

That was the other issue that came up as a part of this whole thing, the fact that at one stage it was indicated that the council should either accept this and/or suffer the consequences of probably having the project not only delayed but not completed. That was the suggestion that was made, a disgraceful situation to apply in the circumstances. I cannot accept that, and neither can the public. When you mention that to them they become extremely irate, and for all the right reasons. That was being held over the heads of a number of people to get a position that was not really going to be in the best interests of the public, the people out there, the people using this road.

Mr Parkinson - There was an article in the Examiner I think a week ago which indicated, to me at least when I read it, that the local council was delaying the project.

Mr DEAN - The council has not delayed the process. What has happened here is the council -

Mr Parkinson - Didn't the Examiner say that? Did the Examiner say that or not?

Mr DEAN - I have some of the releases from the Examiner. I am not sure whether that was said. I have read so many releases in relation to this matter that I am not too sure.

Mr Parkinson - All I'm saying is that is what I read.

Mr DEAN - The fact is that the council simply had a matter to determine, to make a decision on. They made a decision and they were obviously wanting that decision carried out, and it was a reasonable decision. It was not a decision that was made lightly.

Mr Parkinson - So you are talking about a decision that roundabouts should go in instead of intersections?

Mr DEAN - That is right.

Mr Parkinson - So there is an impasse on that point, is there?

Mr DEAN - Yes. There is an impasse on that point.

Mr Parkinson - If there is an impasse on that point, doesn't that give rise to delay?

Mr DEAN - That has caused a delay, but what the public are saying, what the people are saying, what the council did is they not only took the position on the facts that they understand and that they know, but they have also taken on board the concerns of the public. And I need to say that there are some people saying we would be better off getting the road built - at least that gets rid of the whole black-spot area we currently have - and then look at the two intersections at some later stage. That is what some people are saying, but the majority - and when I talk about a majority in this instance it would be about 80 to 90 per cent of the people - are still saying, 'No, we cannot accept that, we need these intersections to be built'.

Mr Parkinson - So it probably comes down to the question of whether the money is available or not.

Mr DEAN - We are not looking at a significant increase in finance to put in one roundabout.

Mr Parkinson - Do we know how much?

Mr DEAN - I will have a guess at it, but it was several hundred thousand dollars. It certainly was not a million dollars, it was under that, the information that I had, so we were talking about $300 000 to $400 000 extra, to my knowledge. That was my understanding in relation to that. I was given the figures at one stage, but that might not be absolutely accurate now.

The T-intersections are known for many problems. They are known mainly because of the accidents that occur on T-intersections, and at T-intersections accidents are normally severe because they often entail a vehicle being hit side on, which is the most vulnerable part of a vehicle. So that is what we would be creating here, and you can look at - and perhaps other members might want to talk about it so I will not go into that - the T-junction or intersection that we now have at Longford. The member for Western Tiers might want to go into more detail there, so I will leave that.

But we have the other intersections. I think Calder Road is another one, near Wynyard, which comes out onto the Bass Highway.

Ms Forrest - There are about three intersections that need attention there; you reduce them or you put roundabouts in.

[11.30 a.m.]
Mr DEAN - Right. So we have a lot of evidence of the precarious nature that intersections cause to motorists. They are not the safest way to go. In actual fact the ARRB, the Australian Road Research Board, a body on the mainland - and I might say that is the body that DIER or this Government, this State, can make a contribution to financially, as just about every other State does - are seen as the experts in relation to many aspects of road design and they do inquiry and investigations into road infrastructure as they are well equipped to do that. ARRB group say roundabouts are the way to go, that roundabouts improve the safety. I think there is about an 80 per cent increase in safety where roundabouts are put in when you compare them with an intersection, as it were -

Mr Parkinson - But - through you, Madam President - surely that depends on the speed. I mean, you don't normally put roundabouts on a 100 kph road. If you take the Brooker Highway, for example, we had several roundabouts along the strip between Hobart and Glenorchy and two of them, at least, have been removed. They were not safe at 80 kph.

Ms Forrest - Through you Madam President - the roundabout that does exist on Mount Hicks Road on the Bass Highway behind Wynyard is on a section with a speed limit of 110 kph, though obviously there is a speed limit of 80 kph through the roundabout, which is still pretty fast. Eighty is the marked limit going through the roundabout and it has an advisory speed limit of 75 kph, I think from memory. You can do it at that if you are hanging on.

Mr Parkinson - I would have thought to do 80 kph on a roundabout in icy conditions would be terribly dangerous.

Ms Forrest - It does get to minus several degrees at Wynyard at this particular roundabout. It is the coldest place on that Bass Highway, according to my car's thermometer. That is the posted sign speed limit for that section.

Mr DEAN - Thank you for that comment.

Mr Parkinson - I would have thought you'd want to reduce the speed limit to around 60 kph for roundabouts to be safe.

Mr DEAN - I am not an expert in relation to the speed of vehicles travelling round roundabouts and I guess it depends on the size of the roundabout -

Mr Parkinson - And the size of the trucks going around them - you are talking about a lot of trucks on this road.

Mr DEAN - Yes, you are; a massive number of trucks on this road. There is no doubt about that and, as I have said, we know that the number of trucks is going to increase dramatically -

Mr Parkinson - Truckies love roundabouts.

Mr DEAN - over the next few years.

There is the other option, as I have said, the integrated exchange to allow safe access on and off that road, and that is very important. Vic Roads also supports roundabouts in most situations, over and above T-intersections as well. You have a whole group of people who are adamant that T-intersections are not the way to go. There are places with very low traffic use where they are and will always be used, and we know that.

Mr Parkinson - Couldn't you install lights on seagull intersections to make them safer still?

Mr DEAN - Yes and no. We have been given evidence by DIER that the T-intersections will be well lit and they have indicated now that there will be some other warning lights established there as well, but that still is not good enough in all of the circumstances.

I want to relate the school bus situation, Madam President. I forgot to mention that previously. When that was raised with DIER, the comment was that in situations where visibility is not good the driver should stop and listen; wind their window down and listen to hear if there is any traffic coming or approaching. As Mr Sainty said, have you tried to do that with a bus load of 50 children? Near impossible. He simply felt that it was probably having a bit of a shot at him. He was not impressed at all when that statement was made.

Mr Wing - It's a ridiculous suggestion anyway.

Mr DEAN - Absolutely.

I want to briefly refer to a report done by an independent engineer, Madam President, who was asked to have a look at these intersections. DIER asked that an independent engineer come in and have a look at these intersections to make a determination on whether or not they were and would be safe in all the circumstances. That independent person is a gentleman by the name of Mr Morgan, an independent traffic engineer, very knowledgable in this area of road traffic and road design. He was brought in from Melbourne to assess the situation. In his assessment, at the end he deemed that they were relatively safe but he did identify a number of changes that should occur, should those intersections be built. He modified further the position that DIER had put forward in the first place.

There is a question mark about the information provided to Mr Morgan in the completion of this report. In other words, the public were concerned that they had not been involved in the process in any way. There had been no consultation with the public and that the information that Mr Morgan had was the information provided to him by DIER and by Pitt & Sherry, the engineers responsible for the designing of this road and the intersections in the first place. It is interesting that he made some modifications to it, saying that the original designs, in his view, were not really safe enough and they needed additional things to be done.

Madam President, I am not going to go too much further. We go through the press. This has been reported in the Examiner continuously for a long time. Comments like, 'kids are most at risk; bus drivers; council vows fight on Dilston roundabouts; council passes motion for bypass roundabouts'. I referred to evidence of the black spot being created and that is referred to in that article. It is, to me, an unacceptable position in all of the circumstances and we cannot sit back and allow that to occur and our public, our people, to be put at risk.

The situation now is, Madam President, that the DIER appeal period I think expires on Friday of this week. I am calling on the Government, in fact pleading with the Government, to become involved in this process. Any appeal will be very costly in the circumstances. It will involve council, in defending their position, having to bring in the required experts to give support to the position that they have come to, having regard to all of the evidence that has been provided. To get that expert, it is highly likely that they will have to go outside this State to get the independence that they need, and they may even have to go further afield than the mainland. It is not known where they will get that information or that expert evidence from. That would involve a cost to the ratepayer of Launceston. Many of those ratepayers say they will not accept it. They said, if there is a cost they have to pay, they will pay it. That is how strong they are on this. At times that will deter people. They will say, they cannot afford that; they will accept what they are going to be given. But they have not said that.

They have said to the council, 'You proceed, you do what you have to do to ensure our safety is protected in all of the circumstances. We have young children. We have a lot of elderly people living in that area and it is all very well to say that you have five seconds or four second to get across two lanes of traffic travelling at 100 kilometres an hour to get into your lane to turn right.' For the driver who is fit and capable perhaps that is not really a difficult position for them to take. However, if you look at some of the fatalities that have occurred at intersections, they do not all involve elderly people or those with disabilities and so on. The latest one on the Bass Highway, as I understand it and I know the people who were involved, certainly were not elderly.

It is a situation, Madam President, that cannot be tolerated in all of the circumstances and I am just pleading with members here today to give support to this matter and I plead with the Government to become involved and to ensure the safety of the people of Dilston, Windermere, Swan Bay, Hillwood and all those other people using this highway to go to Bell Bay, George Town and the north-east coast, who will also be put at risk at these two major intersections.

Mr Finch - Through you, Madam President - you were talking about the possible cost to the Launceston City Council but there is also the cost to taxpayers and the distraction of DIER having to defend their situation.

Mr DEAN - Absolutely. That is a very good point. There is considerable cost to all of us in this whole process and, you are right, that the delay now is causing concern as well. We have had 17 deaths that I am aware of on that section of road, which I do not think that we would see with too many other areas of road in this State over a relatively short period of time, a period of about 16 to 17 years.

That, I think, demonstrates the position that we have there. I do not think that there is a need for me to go on any further. Thank you for supporting me and enabling me to put these facts forward here today.

[11.41 a.m.]
Mr HALL (Western Tiers) - Madam President, I want to make a very short contribution. I understand the honourable member's passion in bringing this forward; it is a significant matter and well deserved as a matter of public importance. The honourable member and the honourable Leader talked about some Examiner reports that came out recently and I am about to refer to one of them too, I think.

It was a front pager and it seemed to indicate that the roundabout that the honourable member and the Launceston City Council would like at Dilston was being put aside in favour of a new one at the junction of the Illawarra Road and the northern outlet at Longford.

Clearly that Examiner report was erroneous because the Longford roundabout was budgeted for in last year's budget so it is already on the books. It is something that I had been campaigning for for some time. There have been a lot of deaths there, as the honourable member for Windermere would know. The Illawarra Road is the main arterial route between the north-west coast and Hobart.

The road that comes out there, Tannery Road, I think, is the main delivery road from the Northern Midlands area. It has Swift meat products there, it has all the log trucks coming out, it has poppies and all sorts of heavy transport. It also suffers from a lot of fog and a lot of school buses come out of there. I just wanted to put it all in a bit of a context.

When I was first campaigning for this the Speaker in another place used to say that yes, something should be done there but it is the cost of it because there is a lot of fill required there. The cost was always an issue in constructing that roundabout. I think that it was $1.9 million just to do the roundabout. It is a very expensive exercise but I am pleased to see it. It is a place where everybody knows there is a fixed speed camera, as I found out a couple of weeks ago.

Mrs Jamieson - It is still operative then?

Mr HALL - I could not have been driving the car; it would not have been me. Yes, it is still operative. I was only 5 kilometres an hour over but I got pinged.

Could I play the devil's advocate for a moment and ask the honourable member for Windermere what is the volume of traffic that actually comes out of that Dilston area?

I would not have expected it to be very heavily populated down there. I know that you mentioned Swan Bay and a couple of other areas as well. I know that the East Tamar Highway is busy but are there potentially more subdivisions going in down there, is it going to increase the level of traffic to come out there?

Mr Dean - Yes, yes, yes. I did mention that. There is one subdivision ready to come before council. I am careful what I say here, but once the development goes in, once the bypass is put in, an area will be opened up and it has been suggested to us that, yes, there will be a development application coming in for that, and there is another fairly large one programmed for the area as well.

Mr HALL - Playing the devil's advocate again, the other thing I would like to mention is that there are probably hundreds of T-intersections in Tasmania with larger volumes of traffic, and I am thinking of the traffic coming out of the Dunorlan Road, the Mengha Road and the feeding of those rural areas which come onto the very busy Bass Highway. Sometimes you just have to sit there for some time because you cannot get out.

Mr Dean - But the point is, though, they are already built, they are already there, and no doubt some of them will be changed in time. This one is yet to be built, so why build one in when you know it is going to be dangerous?

Mr HALL - Yes. I would be interested in the engineering components of these seagull intersections and in how they work. There is no doubt about it, roundabouts do slow traffic down. It is quite simple: you give way to your right and it makes it simple, whereas that particular dog's breakfast of an intersection at the Illawarra Road confuses people, and that is why there have been so many fatalities and so many accidents. I do not know whether the seagull intersections might do the job. I am not sure. That is something that I cannot comment on, but I understand why you would want it.

You mentioned, I think, that with regard to speed limits, they are adamant that they would not allow an 80 kph. That, I would have thought, would solve part of the problem.

Mr Dean - It would have done, and the public had suggested reducing the speed to 80 kph through there, but DIER would not listen to them.

Mr HALL - Are the sight distances reasonable, apart from when it is foggy?

Mr Dean - Sight distances in relation to the southern end will not be that great, nor on the northern end because it comes down in around the curve at Doctors Hill. So sight distances are not great at all.

Mr HALL - So your proposition and that of the people on the council is to not have either of those two seagull interchanges, but just have one roundabout?

Mr Dean - That is what the public have said they would accept. They would accept one safe access onto and off the new highway as a fall-back.

Mr HALL - Madam President, I just wanted to clarify a couple of those issues. I suppose that the Government and DIER will have to consider the matter and we will wait to see what transpires. I support the honourable member for bringing it forward. Obviously it is a concern for many people. Maybe what they propose is good enough, but other people have different views.