Page 2868 - Week 10 - Thursday, 7 October 2021
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Mr Parton, you are a chip off the old block, aren’t you, mate? You are a chip off the old block.
We are starting to see the real colours, despite the Canberra Liberals supposedly supporting this project. Before the last election they did flip-flop. They said, “No, no, we will go to Belconnen. We will go to Belconnen.” Mr Coe overruled the then transport spokesperson, Ms Burch. He got booted out of the parliament at the election. We would have thought that under a new opposition under the leadership of Ms Lee and with Mr Parton in the role we would have seen a different approach. That clearly has not occurred and you can only take it, from the motions that have been presented in this place yesterday and today and the questions that have been asked of me during question time—it is very clear—that the Liberals do not actually support this project.
We are going to get on with the work of building this important project to create a connected, vibrant, sustainable city for our future.
I move:
Omit all text after “notes” (first occurring), substitute:
“(a) Light Rail Stage 2 is the largest investment project ever undertaken by a territory government;
(b) hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in a single transport route and transport technology to connect Civic with Woden;
(c) the Canberra community will experience significant disruption to intra-city travel and business operations for four years or so while construction proceeds;
(d) many Canberrans, community bodies and business groups are taking a strong interest in this project;
(e) many local communities and living precincts will be affected by the construction and completion of the light rail corridor;
(f) the total project cost will be a major investment in Canberra’s future;
(g) in August 2019, the Government published a Business case for the Stage 2A element of the overall project to deliver light rail to Woden;
(h) the majority of financial information in that business case had been redacted for commercial reasons; and
(i) given that Canberrans will pay for most of the light rail project they are reasonably entitled to adequate information on this large project;
(2) further notes that the ACT Auditor-General:
(a) on 24 September, released a report on the government’s economic analysis case for Light Rail Stage 2A;
(b) noted items including wire-free power for light rail vehicles and disruption costs caused by the protracted construction period were not included in the original costings;
(c) also noted economic benefits claimed in the Government’s analysis included residential development value gains in the Acton precinct as well as wider economic benefits elsewhere;
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