Page 4383 - Week 12 - Thursday, 24 October 2019
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It is no secret that we want people to drive less, not just for transport and lifestyle reasons but as a way that we can all reduce transport emissions. Reducing emissions through changes in transport behaviours helps us to contribute to combating climate change.
Light rail is the best technology we have for moving people from where they live to where they work or go to school. It is the best technology available now for achieving that with zero emissions and 100 per cent renewable electricity. Although that is something we aspire to in our bus fleet, it may take some time to transition from a diesel fleet to a zero-emissions bus fleet. But we are doing that planning work as well. These are just some of the reasons our government is planning and committing to a city-wide light rail network across Canberra. The success of light rail stage 1 shows us a way forward.
You will never hear the Canberra Liberals talking about light rail anymore. The reason is that people love it. People love light rail, and they want us to build light rail stage 2 to Woden, stage 3 to Belconnen and stage 4 to Tuggeranong, and then to build it to the rest of Canberra and potentially even to our interstate colleagues across the border in Queanbeyan. We heard Mr Barilaro talking up a potential extension to Queanbeyan. Wouldn’t that be fantastic? Wouldn’t it be great to have the New South Wales government’s contribution?
We hear silence from those opposite. Why won’t the Liberals support light rail? Why are they adamantly opposed to letting the rest of Canberra benefit from a city-wide light rail network? Why do they think that the people in the south of Canberra do not deserve the benefits that those in the north are experiencing right now? The opposition have no plan. They have no plan for light rail, they have no plan for public transport, and they have no plan for reducing emissions. They have no plan for infrastructure in our city, which will be a city of half a million people by 2029. They have no plan to govern.
Our government has delivered on its promise with light rail stage 1. We look forward to building future stages of light rail to the rest of Canberra. The question in this debate is this: given that the Canberra Liberals have an opportunity, through the matter of public importance that Mr Gupta has brought to us this afternoon, will they give their support for the extension of light rail to Woden, Tuggeranong and Belconnen?
MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (4.09): I thank Mr Gupta for bringing this MPI forward today, no doubt at the behest of the transport minister, who is eager to gloss over the six months of network 19 failures his government has presided over. I will start by recalling some of Ms Cody’s comments yesterday. Her motion stated that Canberrans’ livelihoods are dependent on good access to various transport modes, depending on their commitments and circumstances. The keyword here is “various” because committing to city-wide light rail at the expense of other transport options and at the expense of Canberrans flies directly in the face of this statement.
As we have constantly heard Canberrans asking over the past six months, why is it that a 12-kilometre stretch of tram line from Gungahlin to the city which cost
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