Page 2495 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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Liberals suggest it is in their hyperbolic way. And it does not add up to a reason to abandon or delay the project. The team in Capital Metro—which the opposition has opposed funding for—is actually doing a very thorough and very robust job of addressing all the issues and completing the ongoing work that needs to occur. The extensive and quality work from the professionals in the Capital Metro team contrasts starkly with the motion today, which lists a grab bag of questions and quotes as a case for abandoning the entire project.
There are other points that I would like to have had time to touch on, but given the interjections and the points of order, I have run out of time. I did note Mr Coe’s comments about the BCR, and it did make me ponder whether, if light rail does end up with a positive BCR, given what he said about Majura parkway having a positive BCR, that will in fact change his view of the project. That is a point I am sure we will discuss at a future time.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (4.41): We are used to coming in here with the latest light rail Coe tale of woe. Again he is selectively picking over outdated reports or ones paid for by the Liberal Party to represent the stated position. Once upon a time—and it might seem that it was in a galaxy far, far away—the Canberra Liberals supported light rail and was one of its greatest advocates. Then the Liberals moved to ambivalence and, more recently, to outright opposition. I am not sure if today’s motion represents a new position.
Paragraph (1) of the motion is all just Coe woe, and then paragraph (2) is Mr Coe saying, “Whoa, hold your horses! Delay, delay, until the time is right.” So this is now the Liberal position? “We support light rail, but wait until Northbourne Avenue is a gridlocked car park morning and evening and the inner north is clogged with rat-runners.” Is that the position?
What is especially important to me and, hopefully to Mr Coe, is this: is the Liberal position that we wait before building light rail until Ginninderra Drive, Barry Drive and Parkes Way are backed up and Belconnen roads are chock full to Charnwood? The truth is Belconnen is not an island. Its population is increasing and is crossing the city for all manner of reasons. During peak traffic times in years to come, under a Liberal light rail, lightweight, too-late policy, the congestion on Northbourne would back up roads across north Canberra.
We are trying to do something now to be ready for 2020. And what do we hear from the Liberals chanting now? “What do we want? Light rail! When do we want it? Later—when population density can sustain such a system.” Well, we are starting it now so it will be ready before Belconnen and north Canberra are clogged with traffic. Canberra motorists’ best friend is this government, which is facing up to the issue of future traffic congestion now.
Let us talk about some of the alleged evidence the Canberra Liberals use for their not now, light rail, lightweight, too-late policy. First, the Productivity Commission report: the Productivity Commission did not speak to the ACT government regarding light rail in the ACT. The Productivity Commission did not seek to understand the sustainable works which have occurred since the earlier Infrastructure Australia submission, nor did it seek to verify the statements made in its report.
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