Page 3151 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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This is a decision which will leave a large burden on future generations of Canberra taxpayers. With almost every other infrastructure project you take on a significant asset, but here with light rail I fear that we will not be taking on an asset; we will be spending $1 billion in capital expenditure to take on a massive liability that will be a burden for future generations of Canberrans. I urge members to support my motion.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.39): The government will not be supporting this motion put forward by Mr Coe this afternoon. I want to address a range of issues that Mr Coe raises in his speech. Also I want to address the broader, big picture that we need to think about when it comes to light rail in Canberra.
I note to start that Mr Coe continues to assert that buses are the preferable option along Northbourne Avenue, but we know that Mr Coe in this place has already ruled out turning the left-hand lanes north and south on Northbourne Avenue into bus-only lanes We know he is on the record as saying that, if the Liberals had their way. That means, of course, that he wants to turn the median strip into a road. That is what he wants to do. Alternatively, the Liberal Party’s position is that they do not want to actually give public transport priority at all on Northbourne Avenue.
We know that not giving public transport priority at all on Northbourne Avenue will lead to increased travel times for commuters in the morning peak. We know that it will mean a morning peak commute in the year 2031 of approximately 55 minutes for a 12-kilometre journey, and we know just how unacceptable Canberrans would consider such a morning peak commute if the Liberals—
Mr Coe: What’s wrong with a road down the median?
MR CORBELL: What is wrong with a road down the median? I am glad that Mr Coe’s position is to build a road down the median strip of Northbourne Avenue. We know how fundamentally wrong that is if we want to preserve the landscape corridor on Northbourne Avenue.
Let us turn to the issue of cost. The government has set out very clearly what the capital delivery cost estimate is, and that is what it is. It is a capital delivery cost estimate. It is used to inform the government’s decision making. Contrary to the claims made by Mr Coe, the government’s green light for this project to proceed to market is contingent on our consideration of the business case. We have considered that business case, and we have endorsed it. We have endorsed it because it shows a positive economic return to the ACT economy as a whole. It is beneficial infrastructure. It is infrastructure that returns more in benefits than it costs. And we have endorsed it because the cost estimate is consistent with earlier projections, adjusted for escalation, adjusted for risk considerations and risk contingency. That is exactly what we have done. So $610 million plus $173 million contingency is consistent with earlier projections for the project.
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