Page 72 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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change the shops. However, after a public meeting organised by Mrs Dunne and me and further community consultation, the government was forced into promising that no development would take place at Hawker for at least three years. It is unacceptable for the government to try to sneak through major developments behind the community’s back. That three years is now up and the ball is in the government’s court once again as to what they will do with that site, but we hope that, whatever is chosen, it is done in full consultation with and the full cooperation of the local community.
The government could also learn the value of consultation when it comes to their light rail project. In particular, the government should learn to listen when it consults, and to understand that Canberrans simply do not want this project at this time.
Let me repeat the facts. It will cost about $800 million in capital construction cost to move one per cent of Canberrans to work or school every morning, and it is being built at a time when the government is running massive deficits, with the latest deficit blowing out by 132 per cent. We simply cannot afford light rail.
To date the government has spent over $300,000 promoting light rail to Canberrans. Most recently, the government has spent huge amounts of money on all sorts of consultants to tell the government that people actually like light rail. However, it is very easy to say that people like light rail when there are leading questions.
The government has also produced a cardboard tram. It is wheeled around Canberra to promote light rail to Canberrans. However, this is not really a consultative process. When the government asks Canberrans what they would like to see on the route and what they would like the route to look like, it is not really consultation because the fact is that the government is hell-bent on going ahead with light rail regardless of what anybody says.
The only reason we have a line going from Gungahlin to the city is because Mr Rattenbury, Mr Corbell, Mr Barr and others blindly agreed to it in November and December 2012. It is not based on transport planning. It is not based on planning. It is not based on financials. It is not based on the economics. It is simply based on a deal done between Shane Rattenbury and the Labor Party.
At no point has this government properly consulted or properly determined what is the best way to roll out light rail across the territory. Canberrans know that light rail is a dud. They know that it does not stack up, and they do not want it with this price tag.
It is a good time to remind people that the only consultation that the government has done about light rail was in 2012. A survey commissioned by the government found that, whilst people like the concept of light rail, when it comes to an investment in buses or light rail, people prefer buses. And that was at a $614 million price tag, let alone the $783 million price tag that we now have.
Every day Canberrans write to me to voice their opposition to light rail. Canberrans want to have a proper say before this government plunges a $100 million hole in the territory’s annual budget for the next 20 or 30 years. This government needs to listen to their concerns and properly take them into account.
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