Page 3637 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 22 November 2022
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did not include London Circuit because it was not part of the project. That was something that you were going to do anyway. You were going to do that anyway. It has got nothing to do with light rail. Indeed, we have exchanged questions in the past where you have indicated to me: “No, that has nothing to do with light rail. We are just doing that because we need to do it.”
I think what we are seeing here with this movement of funding, too, is the ideological divide between Labor and the Greens, because Mr Steel knows that the Greens will never genuinely support funding on roads. I wonder why these concerns were not raised with the federal government. To everyone who is sitting in traffic, coming from Molonglo to the city over the next decade, from Woden and from Tuggeranong, please remember that these decisions were made.
But do not worry too much if you are in Molonglo, because I note that the district strategy for Molonglo sees the light rail line going out to Molonglo. It has a very clear pathway there. Given that stage 2 is set to reach Woden by 2034—and, I am guessing, stage 3 to Belconnen by 2050 and stage 4 to Tuggeranong by about 2070—I think we should see light rail in Molonglo by 2095. You mark my words: in 2095 you can say, “There was no point us worrying about that funding, because we can catch the tram.”
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (4.08): I would like to thank Ms Lee for moving this important motion today. Like many Canberrans, I was shocked to hear about these three road projects funded by the federal government that have been scrapped here in the ACT. The previous $85.9 million investment in road projects is the exact same money allocated by the federal Labor government to stage 2A of light rail. Originally, the government tried to say, “No, no, no. It is not that one is being stopped to pay for the other. No, no, no. It is just a coincidence.” Obviously, that is not the case at all. We heard about it in the federal estimates hearings.
There are many parts that concern me. The minister insists on talking about the new funding for light rail. It is not new funding. It is not new money. It is money that the federal government was already giving for a different purpose. It is not new money at all, and it is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Paul, in this instance, is the government’s ideologically-favoured project. Peter’s side of the equation, for me, is the residents of Tuggeranong, who want to go about their business each day. They are the ones who are being robbed. They are the ones who will suffer, time after time, because these roads upgrades in the area, the Tuggeranong Parkway one, would have significantly benefited the residents of Brindabella.
As we have heard, in many ways they are probably going to be amongst the last to get the benefit of light rail—if it ever comes to Tuggeranong. It is going to be cold comfort to them that they did not get these road upgrades because 50 years down the track they got light rail. Those people who would have benefited from those road projects over the coming years quite possibly will not be alive or will not be travelling into the city or elsewhere for work by the time light rail comes to Tuggeranong.
I share the concerns that were raised, for example, by the President of the Tuggeranong Community Council, Glenys Patulny, as she spoke to the Canberra Times on 29 October. She said:
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