Page 1855 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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and information. Just over a year ago, a Greens MLC in the Victorian parliament moved a motion calling for the Victorian government to release the contract that had been signed which secured Melbourne as the host for the formula 1 grand prix. The value of that contract is estimated at $250 million. A day before that motion, the Victorian Greens voted to support a motion that called for the tabling of all contracts related to the east-west link. Why should capital metro be any different? I hope Minister Rattenbury will support this motion today.
As for the Labor Party, I find it unlikely that they will support my motion. A party that signs a secret MOU with UnionsACT is not a party that we can rely upon when it comes to transparency. Their actions have demonstrated that they believe some government deals should be in the backroom. This is a government that believes there are some decisions by government that should not be scrutinised. This is a government that does not want scrutiny, a government that does not want transparency. This is a party which seems to do more dodgy deals than it does clean ones.
Of course, the Labor Party pays lip service to transparency. As former Chief Minister Katy Gallagher once said:
… as a first principle information available to the government should be made available for use by the community.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said:
Openness in government is important, and it is right and proper that the territory's citizens are able to see where their money is spent.
Well, I hope the Labor Party can support these principles today and ensure that the light rail contract is published.
Yesterday’s budget revealed the true impact of the government’s decision to go ahead with light rail. Over the next four years, this government wants to spend over half a billion dollars to get light rail to a stage where it is constructed; a system that we know will carry less than one per cent of Canberrans to work or school each day.
Yesterday’s budget showed for the first time the value of the service payments which all Canberrans will pay. These service payments are annual payments the government will make to cover the operating and maintenance costs of light rail, interest costs, and the reduction of the lease liability.
Buried deep in the budget, on page 352 in fact, the government confirms that in 2019-20, light rail’s first full year of operation, the ACT government will pay $25.4 million to operate and maintain light rail, $21.3 million in interest and a further $8 million in order to reduce the lease liability, a payment that will reduce this liability from $325.5 million to $316.7 million.
It is all very well for this government to say we are not paying a cent until light rail is operational. But all that is happening right now is that we are accruing expenses and
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