Page 2499 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014

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that it is going to be the best thing since sliced bread when the reality is, as their own patronage projections show, we have got 3½ thousand people on buses that hop on to a tram. We will still have the same 3½ thousand people riding public transport. When is the government going to address that key point? The key point is: where are all these extra people coming from? A billion dollars is a huge amount to spend.

It is all very well for Dr Bourke to say, “Maybe we’ll wait 20 or 30 years and Barry Drive and Ginninderra Drive are going to be clogged.” Well, quite frankly, light rail from Gungahlin to the city is not going to do much for Barry Drive. In actual fact, crossing Northbourne Avenue when you have light rail is going to be mayhem, and the banking up of traffic on Barry Drive is only going to get worse as a result of light rail going north to south on Northbourne Avenue. The same can be said about Macarthur Avenue. The same can be said about Antill Street. At present you can turn into Dickson from northbound traffic, or from southbound traffic you can turn into Lyneham at Lyneham High School. That is not going to be possible under light rail. There are many unintended, unknown or undiscussed consequences as a result of this commitment.

I find it amazing that the government has already committed to $60 million of expenditure—$60 million of expenditure—yet the Chief Minister is saying, “We haven’t made a final decision.” We have got numerous staff over at capital metro—who, I might add, are doing the best they can with their very limited mandate of building a tram from Gungahlin to the city—on five-year contracts. Who puts staff on a five-year contract if you have not committed to the project? It seems absolutely bizarre. We are going to sack all these people if, in two months time, the government says, “It doesn’t stack up. The business case doesn’t support light rail”.

As we speak, I am sure Minister Corbell is trying to massage every figure he possibly can and donning every hi-vis vest he can possibly get his hands on to try and demonstrate that this is real. Well, it is very real to the ratepayers and taxpayers of Canberra. The situation the vast majority of Canberrans will be in following the construction of light rail is exactly the same if not worse as it is today. They will be paying more but they will not be getting any benefit. We believe this project needs to be delayed indefinitely until a time in Canberra’s future when we can sustain such a system.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

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