Page 1814 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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ACT Labor is preparing for the future. … We’re investing massively in road infrastructure …
ACT Labor has also made it easier … to travel by road …
But the government submission on light rail to Infrastructure Australia, a document which it did not want to release, says, in fact:
If one of the key objectives and goals of the Sustainable Transport Plan is to decrease carbon emissions then the building of more roads to reduce congestion is not … a sustainable approach.
In fact, in the submission’s analysis of different solutions for Canberra’s sustainability and congestion problems, building more roads comes out as the worst option. It is assessed as having a negative impact against criteria such as reducing carbon emissions, reducing accidents and improving equity. In fact, the only criterion on which building more roads scored positively was consumer preference. And this, I think, is a telling indictment of the government’s short-term approach to transport issues.
In the Assembly’s last sittings, Mr Corbell said:
The government recognises that climate change is the most crucial issue facing us today as a community. … The policy we set today locally, nationally and internationally will face judgements over many generations to come.
These words are true and I fear that, unless things really change, this government, and in fact the whole Assembly, will be judged very poorly. Transport is a critical part of the climate change problem. The ACT has a unique greenhouse gas emissions profile, with transport making up a significant percentage of our emissions—25 per cent. Canberra has a small population and relatively low density, so changes in transport patterns offer a good opportunity for significant improvement in our per capita emissions.
But where is the ACT going with transport and where are the big changes we need? I acknowledge that the budget yesterday made an effort to respond to some of these transport issues, primarily in the area of public transport infrastructure. A number of items funded are actually leftover or overdue actions from the 2004 sustainable transport plan. At least the government is looking at them, even if it is late, but of course we need much more.
I am glad to see that the government is also responding to some of the urging of the Greens, not just in public transport but also in cycling and walking infrastructure—things such as lighting for the path networks, for the bus interchanges and the major bus stops. These are things that we have been talking about and asking for for a long time. So I encourage the government to take another step and to support this motion today.
There has been a lot of government rhetoric. But so far at this stage it has been a small shift compared to what we really need. We are concerned that, while the increased
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