Page 2837 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013
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Of particular concern to my portfolio interests is the government’s mismanagement of the light rail proposal. The government has not made the financial case as to why the ACT needs this project. At best, all we get are some ideologically driven hunches from Minister Simon Corbell that the project has “the best overall outcome”. Quite simply, the government’s selling of the light rail project to the Canberra community has been appalling. However, that is not a surprise given, I imagine, there is a broad spectrum of views within cabinet on the light rail project. Does the Treasurer actually support the light rail project? Is he really an advocate for spending $614 million on the light rail project? Is it true that there are very senior bureaucrats in the ACT who are also very concerned about this project? I wonder whether we do, in fact, have a divided cabinet on the light rail proposal.
All of these questions, in addition to the ones about the substance of the actual light rail proposal, need to be addressed in order for ACT taxpayers to have confidence in the 2013-14 budget. How is it that the ACT government can plan to have a light rail project under construction in less than three years, yet there is no money in the budget for construction of this project? If the ACT government has financially committed to constructing light rail, it has an obligation to include that liability in the territory budget. I say that again: if the ACT government has financially committed to constructing light rail then why is that liability not included in the 2013-14 budget?
The government has not articulated why we need a $614 million light rail project. It will be the largest single infrastructure project an ACT government has ever committed to—bigger than the Cotter Dam. I believe there is extreme concern about the project in the community, and the government is not allaying those concerns.
Of course, concern is not limited to the Canberra community; it goes far and wide, especially to Infrastructure Australia. In June 2013, just a couple of months ago, the national infrastructure plan was released with some fanfare. The peak infrastructure body suggested for the ACT that we go ahead with buses—that we do not do light rail but go ahead with buses. In the 2012-13 assessment brief on the ACT government’s light rail proposal, the Infrastructure Australia body rated the proposal in the following way:
This project was first submitted in 2011 and not recommended for inclusion on the priority list as there was limited evidence to demonstrate a nationally significant problem.
It went on to say:
The proponent has not demonstrated the scale and impact of the problem, taking into consideration the decision to proceed with construction of the Majura Parkway, a largely parallel corridor on Canberra’s east which is likely to redirect at least some traffic from the Northbourne Avenue corridor.
And then:
It is not clear how shortlisted options were selected from the list of potential options. There is limited information on the rationale for excluding options, and
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