Page 3091 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 August 2013
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This is the man who under-delivers and underwhelms on everything he touches. He brings out our policy from 2008 where he says the Liberal Party said, “Getting light rail on track,” and we did. But let us look at how we said we would do it. We said that, “If the case stacks up, we will take a fully costed proposal to the electorate prior to the next election in 2012 to let the Canberra public make a fully informed choice on this very significant undertaking.” Do we have a fully costed proposal? No, we do not.
We have a government that made a decision and then said, “We’ll work the numbers and do the studies.” Indeed, our policy went on to say that the Canberra public should be fully informed on a range of factors such as what light rail would cost—we do not know that—how much it will cut travel time—we have some of that—and decongest roads—if you can believe the minister—and what the contribution would be to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We said we would do the feasibility studies and the forward design and then take it to the electorate instead of having a bright spark idea. You can see the little light bulb above Mr Corbell’s head where he said, “Let’s build a light rail. Doesn’t matter what the cost is.” We know the cost does not matter because the Treasurer let the cat out of the bag.
These guys are like explorers in deepest, darkest Africa. Mr Stanhope was the Dr Livingstone of light rail. In 2001, “We’ll conduct a feasibility study.” In 2008 Jon Stanhope went on to say, “I am extremely pleased to announce that the ACT government is moving ahead with its exploration of light rail.” There he is, exploring in the darkness, Dr Livingstone out there. The question now is: who is playing Dr Stanley? Will Mr Corbell find the lost light rail? Or will it be given over to Mr Rattenbury to save the whole project?
That is if the project goes ahead. We know this government has form. We know they put out grand plans and never deliver on them. They just never deliver on them. Where is Mr Hargreaves and his busway that was going to be built over his dead body? Think of the money wasted on that. They never deliver. Never. Where is Mr Quinlan’s promise that in 2002 we would have a site for a convention centre? Still not found. And Mr Corbell is the arch offender in this.
The problem is, as Mr Coe points out, that it is about $4,400 each just for the capital cost, and we do not even know what the ongoing cost is. This is not the way you deliver these projects. Then to hide his embarrassment, he attacks us and puts words in our mouths. He said we have chosen bus rapid. Well, we have not. We want the data on this. We want to know how it will be done.
So what else did we say in our policy back in 2004? We said we would expect the federal government to contribute significantly to making light rail a reality in the ACT. However, we said that in order to attract federal support the ACT government must present a comprehensive and credible case that demonstrates that sustainable capacity and demand exist. If the ACT government is not prepared to show a willingness to invest in serious studies, then it cannot expect the federal government to fund this proposal ahead of other more polished proposals from other states.
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