Page 2068 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018
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enable Transport Canberra to enter negotiations for a stop at Sandford Street and for that stop to be constructed in the 2019-20 financial year. We look forward to keeping Mitchell traders and the community updated and informed on the process for the construction of this site.
Madam Assistant Speaker, we can all see great outcomes for the Gungahlin town centre as light rail construction concludes and we move towards the start of light rail services for our city. Already the new bus interchange is operational with new and improved bus services starting later this year to connect directly with light rail in Gungahlin.
It is estimated that thousands of people will be attracted each week to Hibberson Street to commute by light rail, to shop and use local services right around the town centre and its upgraded pedestrian areas. There is real long-term economic benefit in the light rail project. The government’s significant investment in the Gungahlin town centre and in an integrated and improved public transport system will bring benefit for many.
I particularly look forward to seeing the northern section of the light rail corridor, between Mitchell and Gungahlin, being completed. I look forward to supporting local businesses and working with them to celebrate the end of construction in the town centre and a new era for Gungahlin and for our city.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.59): The Greens will be supporting the ALP amendment to this motion. I think it will possibly be a consensus view, although I am not quite sure about that. The issue, however, that Mr Milligan raised is a very real one. It is not, of course, the first time we have discussed it in this Assembly and it will not be the last time, I am sure.
When governments deliver infrastructure, there is often an impact on the businesses around the infrastructure that is being delivered. The financial impact on these most affected businesses can be very large. The usual pattern is that the biggest impacts happen to those businesses that lose visibility or passing trade. In other words, it is a temporary reduction often in parking or sometimes hoardings, or something like that. We have all seen it in many places. It is almost finished now, I think, on London Circuit. We probably see it on a daily basis.
The scale of works can be less important, as with the London Circuit example. Small works such as paving upgrades can still have a huge impact on the businesses that are there, affected by it. It is not a problem just in the ACT; it is a problem round Australia—anywhere that we have city services that need to either upgrade or do substantial maintenance and anywhere that wants to build new infrastructure or maintain their existing infrastructure.
Mr Milligan’s motion raises the case of Sydney’s light rail project. On top of that, a quick Google search by my office highlighted the following other interstate examples over the last three months: business disruption caused by major road and rail projects in Melbourne; business disruption caused by the North Terrace light rail extension in
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