Page 3157 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014

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It is all very well for Minister Corbell to talk about the economic case behind light rail, but how is it then that he has totally ignored the economic case for bus rapid transit which is double the economic return of light rail? If it is all about the economy why are they not going with BRT which had double the return on investment? That is of course the very criticism that Infrastructure Australia, the Centre for International Economics and the Productivity Commission have had of this minister and of this government.

Finally, the latest in this string of disasters for the government is that the government claims that they have made a decision on light rail. Yet on Monday night robocalls were going out in Canberra polling on behalf of the ACT government about light rail. Why are the government spending even more of taxpayers’ money on polling whether people like the idea of light rail if they have in fact committed to going ahead with this? This is taxpayers’ money. It is an insult to all the ratepayers in Canberra, to all the businesses struggling with payroll tax, to all the businesses struggling with increased rates, that this government is still doing robocalls to poll people about their opinion on light rail.

I would ask that someone from the government—whoever the responsible minister is, whoever commissioned this poll—publicly says who commissioned it and how much it is costing. Further to that, if they want to say what the cause of it is, that might be handy as well.

What we have heard today is that the government will not disclose information because we want to have a contested option. The government already disclosed the $610 million figure and the $173 million contingency. If that is not showing your hand, I do not know what is.

This project has been a shambles from the very beginning and I have no confidence whatsoever that anything Minister Corbell is in control of is going to go according to best practice. I urge members to vote down Mr Rattenbury’s amendment and vote for the motion as stated in the notice paper.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

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