Page 3607 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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MR PARTON: Minister, is it misleading to tell the people of Tuggeranong that light rail is coming when its arrival date could well be 18 ACT elections away?
MR STEEL: We have an integrated transport system in Canberra. We have light rail running and we have buses—soon-to-be electric buses—running into the suburbs on local routes and on rapid routes. They connect with our light rail system. So people from Tuggeranong will use the light rail system when it comes down to Commonwealth Park and down to Woden. They will connect with it, using buses. Some of those buses will go direct to the city from Tuggeranong, and some of them will connect, through an integrated network. That is what a transport network is—a connection of various different routes on the system, including mass transit light rail. They will use light rail when it starts operating from Woden, from Commonwealth Park, if they are not using it already.
MR COCKS: Minister, when are you going to drop the secrecy, come clean and tell the people of Canberra what the tram is going to cost and when it is going to get to Woden?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. He may not realise that we have actually released a business case for stage 2A, and that we continue to publish the contracts that we are signing for each of the parts of delivering the stage 2 project, including contracts with Abergeldie, for the raising of London Circuit.
Mr Cocks: A point of order, Madam Speaker, on relevance.
MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat, Mr Steel.
Mr Cocks: The question was very specifically about getting to Woden. Stage 2A, which the minister is talking about, will not come to Woden; it will only make it to
the lake.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Cocks, the minister was answering the question. You stood up on a point of order less than 30 seconds into it. The minister can continue.
MR STEEL: I think we have established that, in order to get light rail down to Woden, it needs to go to Commonwealth Park first. We continue to publish the contracts that we sign, including the latest contract with Canberra Metro for the supply of not only five new light rail vehicles, but retrofitting the existing 14 with wire-free onboard energy systems which will enable us to bring them through the parliamentary triangle to Woden. We are getting on with the work, because we are committed to this project. It seems that, under the Lee Liberals, it is the same old Liberals. They have never supported light rail, and they never will.
MADAM SPEAKER: Before I give the next call, can I ask ministers to tamp down on your eagerness to respond to a question and wait to be called. Also, I remind members that in the standing orders, under 117—and I will be paying attention to this over the next couple of weeks—it says that there should be no imputations, no ironical expressions or hypothetical matters. Some of the questions, for me, verge on that, particularly some interjections.
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