Page 3718 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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It is great that Dr Bourke, in government, is talking about the opposition. It is just wonderful. It is as if he is getting prepared to be in opposition, being prepared to bag out a Liberal government, by having a go at the Liberal opposition now. We do not shy away from what we have said. In actual fact we are proud of the advocacy we are doing on behalf of the taxpayers of Canberra because we do not want to see $800 million squandered or, perhaps worse, $100 million each year over 20 years. That is a very real possibility with light rail.
Let me reiterate what I said earlier. The cost of a dozen trams on the tracks is the same as 400 buses on the road. A $100 million subsidy for ACTION versus $100 million for light rail: with one you get 400 buses; with the other you get a dozen trams. If you want slogans, Dr Bourke, that is not a bad one.
There is much more that could be said about Dr Bourke’s bizarre motion. We, of course, will always welcome the opportunity to discuss light rail in this place. It is interesting that Mr Rattenbury, just yesterday, as he does every week, bagged out the opposition for having a weekly light rail motion. Well, what is this? This is another government light rail motion. We had a government light rail MPI last week and now we have a government light rail motion. So if Mr Rattenbury does not want to hear a discussion about light rail in this place, he should also be speaking to his government colleagues. As long as this is on the agenda, the opposition is going to have much to say about how we can better spend $800 million of capital expenditure.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (10.29): I thank Dr Bourke for the opportunity to speak on this item today.
The government has clearly set out its priorities, adapting to needs as they arise but with a firm view on the future growth and development of our city. As Minister for Capital Metro, I would like to focus today on transport and urban renewal, and how light rail will help deliver against this priority. That is fundamentally what this motion is about today.
Transport is an important challenge for all cities, and Canberra is no different. Even though we are a small city in population terms, we face significant and growing challenges. We know that over the last century we have seen growth in our city to over 380,000 people. Over the next 40 years we will grow to over 600,000. We need to plan for that growth today. We need to work out where those people will live and how those people will move around our city.
That is what this motion is fundamentally about. Business as usual is not an acceptable response to that ongoing population growth. Think about it, Madam Speaker—an extra 220,000 residents, two-thirds the population of today, in our city over the next 40 years. Where are they going to live? How are they easily and effectively going to move around? How are we going to maintain the quality of life, the accessibility and the prosperity of our city with that level of population growth? These are the questions we need to consider when we think about investments in transport infrastructure like the capital metro project.
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