Page 3574 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 20 November 2007
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When he was asked in November 2005 whether the busway would go ahead, he said:
Of course, we are continuing to work on dedicated public transport infrastructure such as the proposed busway between Belconnen and Civic.
Mr Quinlan was asked in January, three months later, whether the busway would go ahead and he said, “I would doubt that.” Mr Corbell, two months later, in March 2006, said:
The route options chosen for further assessment have been selected after an exhaustive selection process involving community consultation, engineering investigations and evaluation of environmental issues by public transport consultants, noise specialists and expert wildlife and botanical panels.
In May 2006, John Hargreaves was asked whether the busway would go ahead. He said, “Not in my lifetime.” The Chief Minister, in May 2006, said:
The Government approved I think a couple of years ago detailed planning studies into a dedicated busway from Belconnen to the City. Those studies are proceeding and we’ll complete those studies and through those studies we will reserve land for a potential future dedicated busway.
So the mixed messages and the absolute mismanagement of this project that we have seen on the part of this government are perhaps the reasons why Ms MacDonald failed or refused to mention the busway in her speech. It was not that she did not have enough time.
An amount of $3.5 million has been wasted on a project that simply never stacked up. Everyone knew it did not stack up; it was money that never should have been spent. It has become an iconic example of this government’s disdain regarding the use of taxpayers’ money. It has become an iconic example of waste by the ACT Labor government. This is money that could have been put into health; it is money that could have been put into education; it is money that could have been put into water or roads infrastructure. Instead we have had $3.5 million expended on a busway that we are now told by parts of the government is not going to go ahead in their lifetime.
The really interesting thing is that Mr Hargreaves spoke about the sustainable transport plan. The sustainable transport plan is something he has sought to distance himself from since taking over the portfolio, but if we are to believe what is in the plan for the ACT, not only is the Belconnen to Civic busway part of the plan but it is part of the plan in the short term. It is one of the short-term priorities. On page 50, at the top of the list of the short-term priorities, we see this:
Construction of busway. Belconnen to Civic busway: description and construction of busway, bus priority measures and stops. This project will connect the major activity nodes along this key route.
That is a short-term priority. On the one hand we have the Chief Minister saying, “Well, maybe in 20 or 30 years,” and we have Mr Hargreaves saying, “Not in my
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