Page 4257 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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I think we need to have good alternatives to the private motor vehicle, good alternatives to simply having to sit in your car to drive to work. Whether that is good cycle networks, good walking networks or good public transport networks, people want an alternative. If you talk to the mobile, young professionals who will be a critical part of driving economic growth for cities into the future, they are the sorts of cities those people are looking for. They do not want to spend an hour sitting in a car driving from the suburbs.
There has been considerable criticism both in this place and in the media—in fact, almost predominantly from the Canberra Liberals—which simply does not stack up at this point in time. There have been criticisms—and Mr Hanson has reiterated some of them today—that there is not enough information to make a decision. “We have not seen the case.” These documents do exist. There is considerable information available in the public domain about why this route has been chosen, the basis on which the current costings have been developed, the sorts of projections that the government studies have revealed as to the basis on which this decision has been taken and why this route has been chosen.
I think that the criticisms about the gearing up of staff are simply cheap point-scoring. Any major project needs considerable staff, and I am sure if you sat down and looked at any other projects, including ones that the Canberra Liberals would support, you would see similar salary structures.
I think the economics of it do stack up. The cost-benefit studies have been made public. The figures are there in the public domain for people to look at. Yes, light rail is more expensive than bus rapid transit. It is easier to take that out there and put that simple fact out there but it leaves out the second half of the sentence which says the overall benefits for the community are greater. And that is about the long-term decisions here. Those studies show the overall economic outcomes for the city are greater with light rail, and that is a long-term decision.
The investment now will continue to deliver for this city and deliver more for this city over an extended period. Certainly, from my perspective and from the perspective of the Greens, we want to harness those benefits for this city, for the current residents and for the future residents.
As to the criticism of the route, I have already talked about that. Minister Corbell has given some very good data on the growth of population in the corridor that is being planned. We have spoken about the significant congestion. I think the people of Gungahlin in particular deserve good transport outcomes. Other parts of the city have got significant transport infrastructure already. Gungahlin is a rapidly growing area with a lot of people still to move in and it needs these options. That said, it is quite clear that the work is being undertaken to plan further parts of the network.
Once we get this first stage completed—and we have already seen Canberra Airport embrace the notion of light rail and say, “We want more bits installed. We want extra parts of the light rail network”—I expect we will see those extra parts in the future. Mr Hanson spoke of Belconnen to the city and the various institutions along the way.
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