Page 116 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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Also keep in mind that inherent in the Liberal Party’s vehement campaign against stage 1 of light rail is that it also means we will not have stage 2 of light rail. Nor will we have stage 3. There will be no extension to Russell, no light rail for Belconnen, Woden, Tuggeranong, the airport, Weston Creek and Molonglo. There are no future stages without stage 1. Canberrans all over the city should know that the local Liberal Party are not opposing stage 1 of light rail; they are opposing the idea of a high quality renewable energy public transport spine for all of the ACT. That is what happens. If you cancel stage 1, nobody else will ever see that.
One of the bits of community feedback I have heard is that people say, “I like light rail; I wish I was getting it first.” I kind of accept that position. What that says to me is that people want to see it in this city and there is a certain jealousy about the fact that it is going to one part of town first. But it has to go to somewhere first. If the Liberals prevail with the position that they are taking, nobody else in Canberra will see light rail either, whereas the Greens and the Labor Party have made it quite clear in the master plan for light rail across the city that there is a vision for long-term delivery right across this city.
Mr Coe’s comments about abandoning or pausing the project bring to mind the statements of now Senator Zed Seselja when he was the leader of the Canberra Liberals. Before the last election, Mr Seselja criticised the Labor and Greens parties for a lack of action on light rail. Mr Seselja said:
They are not prepared to do the study; they are not prepared to do the work. They promise it at every election … And they will have to look the electorate in the eye and tell them why they did not get it done.
That was what Mr Seselja said. Mr Coe is now saying that the government needs to stop taking action or we will have to look the electorate in the eye and tell them why we did get it done. Which is it? Are we too slow on light rail or too fast on light rail? Mr Seselja notes in his comments, as it is interesting to reflect, that “They promise it at every election.” To come in here and say the community has not had a discussion about this, as the Canberra Liberals seek to do—well, that is not what Mr Seselja thought in 2012. He was bemoaning that it was not happening fast enough, that people were not taking serious action.
This government has committed to taking serious action. We have done the three years of work, and we are at the point of fruition of all that hard work. We are starting to deliver this project on the ground for the people of Canberra.
On the question of whether it is too slow or too fast, the real answer is that it is neither. It is just that the Liberals have to oppose whatever initiative is promoted by the government or the Greens. It is why, over time, we see strange contradictions occurring in their policies. Mr Seselja says, “Why are you so slow on light rail?” Mr Coe says, “Why are you so fast on light rail?” The Canberra Liberals say, “Do not ban plastic bags,” yet Liberals in other states push on to ban plastic bags because they know it is the right policy. Malcolm Turnbull praises the ACT for its progressive and courageous tax reform while the Canberra Liberals oppose these reforms. They oppose, and therefore they are.
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