Page 3900 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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I think that will be a very good thing. It will give a range of stakeholders a great deal more confidence in the project, and it will allow for what will undoubtedly be further public discussion on the matter. Overall that business case, when it is released, will underline why the cabinet has confidence in moving forward with this process. I am sure people will argue about elements of it, and I am sure that debate will continue over the coming months, but that is a healthy thing. Overall, it will be a significant step forward regarding the transparency of the project.
We are, of course, debating the topic frequently here in the Assembly. I made an off-hand remark the other day which seemed to cause some offence, and I certainly did not mean it in that way. But we are discussing it very regularly in this place, and I am sure we will continue to do so.
To that extent my amendment calls on the government to continue to make further time available for hearings in the existing committees, both in the Standing Committee on Planning, Environment and Territory and Municipal Services and in the 2015 estimates hearings. We have annual reports hearings coming up in a few weeks on 21 November—fully three weeks after the release of the business case. That will be an excellent opportunity to allow for more detailed questioning and scrutiny. Through this amendment there is a commitment from the government to make further time available for hearings so that the officials can answer questions from members of the Assembly and allow them to ask further questions and improve their understanding of that business case.
This amendment provides an ongoing level of transparency in addition to the significant transparency that the government is already providing on this project. I commend my amendment to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.27): As Minister for Capital Metro, I welcome scrutiny of this project. It is very important that we have scrutiny of significant capital infrastructure projects, and there is no doubt that capital metro is indeed that.
It is the case, as Mr Rattenbury has indicated, that the full business case, which will be released tomorrow, will provide a significant amount of detail for people to look at and consider. The government is taking the unprecedented step of releasing the full business case for a major infrastructure project at a time when other governments around the country are actively resisting the release of business cases, such as the Napthine Liberal government in Victoria, which is resisting—indeed resisting through the courts—the release of the business case for the East West Link project, for example. This government is proceeding with the release of its economic analysis and the business case for the capital metro project.
It is worth highlighting, as Mr Rattenbury does in his amendment, that this Assembly has already resolved to devote approximately 7½ hours of specific committee time—a full 7½ hours—to ask questions about the project. It is an unprecedented level of time to be devoted through the estimates and annual reports processes. It is worth
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