Page 2952 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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their electorate? They do not have a Green in Belconnen and they do not have a Green in Tuggeranong that needs this as part of their priorities for re-election. It has got very little to do with public transport priorities for Canberra because, as we know, stage 1, which was this tram, was locked in before the master plan was even complete.
Where is the master plan? Where is this transformative plan for all of Canberra for light rail? Where is it? The master plan is going to show us how Canberra is going to be transformed. It is going to show us the network to connect all the town centres. Where is it? Any government, anyone conducting planning of any sort, would know that you would do that plan first. You would do your strategic master plan, you would assess the routes and you would then decide which routes to implement in sequence based on cost, based on viability, based on patronage; based on a range of other factors.
But the government are retrofitting the master plan to try and make the case for the fact that they have already decided to do stage 1. They have already discounted other routes—other routes from your electorate, Mr Assistant Speaker—that would go from a very heavily populated area where there are people with great social need in many cases who might benefit from a tram going through a university or hospital into town. Why was that not considered? Because there is no Green, Mr Assistant Speaker. I am sure that if Mr Rattenbury was also a member for Ginninderra we would know exactly where stage 1 would be going, and it would not be on the route that is planned.
The other question that has to be asked is this: what is this going to cost us? The capital costs, as we heard in question time, I think need further explanation. I commend Mr Coe again for the work he has done here. He has again exposed the failings and the lack of detail not just in Mr Corbell’s plan but in his figures. What is the full cost of light rail? We now know from question time that capital metro is not in the cost of light rail. How extraordinary is it that capital metro, the organisation that tweets and puts out little squeezy dolls for you to play with and show bags, is not included in the cost of light rail. I thought they were the agency; the Capital Metro Agency. You would think that would part of the costs, but no, it is not.
As much as Mr Corbell has attacked Mr Coe, Mr Coe has rightly asked all the questions and it turns out Mr Coe was right all along. What is the full capital cost? What are the costs in the budget? We still do not have the full answer. The thing that really vexes a lot of people in Canberra, apart from the fact that they do not have the business case yet and the government refuses to release the business case, is that there is no explanation of the operational cost. What is this thing going to cost to run? Mr Assistant Speaker, can you answer that?
Government members interjecting—
MR HANSON: We are getting some interjections from those opposite. Hopefully Mr Corbell will answer some of these questions. He will tell us where the business case is now that he has come in here with his interjections. He will tell us what the operational costs are for light rail. He will tell us whether the Capital Metro Agency is incorporated or not and, if not, why not. I welcome his appearance here in the chamber, but it is odd that Mr Rattenbury, who is the Minister for Territory and
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