Page 3595 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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livable cities index, eight have light rail—eight out of 10. That is a common factor that I think is not surprising when you think about all of the benefits that I have just described.
I would like to turn to some of the recent commentary by our colleagues in the Canberra Liberals. I want to particularly mention briefly a recent statement put out by Mr Coe in which he said:
This is a project that cost us all more than $800 million but delivers no economic or transport benefits to Canberra.
That was the quote. That statement is a good example of the ill-informed claims used by the Liberal Party. How ridiculous is it to say that the project will deliver no economic or transport benefits to Canberra. The transport and economic benefits are clear, they are a prime reason for pursuing the project, they are calculated as being worth billions of dollars. To pretend there are no economic or transport benefits is in complete ignorance of the evidence and demonstrates Mr Coe’s willingness to make extreme and incorrect statements and perhaps suggests that Mr Coe refuses to recognise or does not understand the ongoing benefits that public transport projects can bring to our city.
It is one thing to disagree with a project, but to go so far as to say that there are no benefits is simply silly. The same statement from Mr Coe said:
Organisations such as Infrastructure Australia, the Centre for International Economics and the Productivity Commission, as well as respected economists such as Leo Dobes and David Hughes, have all supported my view.
I think it is probably a misrepresentation to say that those people and organisations support Mr Coe’s view. Yes, those individuals or organisations have raised various issues and criticisms about light rail, but I doubt any of them would want their views conflated with those of Mr Coe, who has taken more of a shrill, hyperbolic, inconsistent and oppose-at-all-costs approach to discussing this project. As an example, would any of those people or organisations be willing to say that light rail will deliver no economic or transport benefits to Canberra, as Mr Coe said? I doubt it. As I say, they take issue with the project and elements of the project but none of them, as I recall it, have gone so far as to say that. The more I hear the criticism from the opposition, the more I realise that their position is founded on a strong anti-public transport sentiment and the desire to find a short-term campaign goal.
It is an interesting contrast to compare it to our other big infrastructure spend in this city, the nearly $300 million Majura parkway, because there has certainly been no scrutiny at all from the opposition on that one. On light rail, the Liberal Party cries that it only services a select part of Canberra. The Majura parkway is also located in just one part of Canberra, but in fact the Majura parkway is not really even for Canberra commuters. It is built to be a freight route for interstate freight trucks.
On light rail, the government is undertaking a master plan with an intention of extending light rail across the city to serve a wide range of Canberrans. Mr Coe has raised here today the question of why Labor Party members are not clamouring for their electorates. (Time expired.)
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