Page 2229 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2016
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MR HINDER: Minister, given that the construction scheduled is based on a signed contract—
MADAM SPEAKER: Preamble.
MR HINDER: I beg your pardon.
MADAM SPEAKER: Don’t have a preamble, please; just get to the question.
MR HINDER: Minister, what possibility is there to rescope the construction contract if somebody wanted to build something different?
MS FITZHARRIS: I thank Mr Hinder for his supplementary. I would like to be very clear about this point. It is not feasible to rescope the contracts associated with the light rail project and seek for the parties involved to build something different. The private investors have backed this transformational project because they have an appetite for light rail, not for other investments. As I said earlier, the work is now underway, with more than 500 jobs depending on it—500 jobs. Years of work have gone into getting approvals, an environmental impact statement has been completed, and the National Capital Authority has given its consent to the project. This all cannot be simply rescoped for something else.
Members interjecting—
MS FITZHARRIS: The individual experts engaged on the project are experts in designing, constructing and operating light rail. There is no obligation on Canberra Metro to rescope—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Could you stop the clock, please. Ms Fitzharris, could you sit down, please. Mr Hanson, I do not want to hear a conversation initiated by the Chief Minister across the chamber. The minister has the floor and she is answering a question asked by Mr Hinder. Can we cut the conversation, please. Ms Fitzharris.
MS FITZHARRIS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I was saying, the Canberra Metro consortium is here to deliver light rail, and that is their focus. The contract that the government has signed is specific to light rail. To ask the government to rescope a light rail contract to produce something completely different is like signing a contract to build a house, waiting for work to start and then asking the builder for a car instead.
Every serious commentator in the industry knows that calls to rescope the light rail contract are completely unworkable. What the industry expects and deserves is a government that honours its contracts, that understands commercial contracts; a government that delivers certainty and predictability for our construction industry. That is what a Labor government will deliver.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Burch.
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