Page 4250 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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proper analysis to show why it has chosen the route that it has. This is a worry, given that the government is proposing what is set to be the biggest infrastructure spend in a territory government’s history.
Has the government considered constructing light rail from Belconnen to the airport through the city? It would collect people at the University of Canberra, AIS, Calvary, CIT Bruce, ANU, CIT Reid and Russell Offices. Wouldn’t having four education campuses, a hospital and the sports stadium on the light rail line make more sense? Was this considered? The opposition are not saying we should build this line; what we are saying is that all options should be considered before spending so much money.
When did Minister Corbell get his tram to Damascus? When did he abandon his preference for bus rapid transit?
Mrs Jones: When he became the Attorney-General.
MR HANSON: Perhaps. For years, he was an advocate for bus rapid transit but now he has dropped it. I think Minister Corbell needs to explain his change in position. I note that Mr Gentleman was quoting previous comments from the opposition. I think that Mr Corbell needs to explain himself—again, notably absent from Mr Gentleman’s speech.
The real question is whether this project will get off the ground or not. How much will be spent along the way? I find it very hard to believe that there are not people in cabinet—and Mr Barr is absent today, I note—who are starting to think twice about this project. Is there really no minister or member of the backbench who is questioning whether this project should get the green light? We know that there are members of the public service, some very high in the public service, who have real doubts about this project. I just cannot believe that there are nine people in the government who are all absolutely resolute in their views that this project should go ahead, based on the information that is available.
Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics census data and the ACT government’s figure of $614 million for the construction of light rail, each area of Canberra will pay the following: Belconnen, $163,240,533; Gungahlin, $77,475,401; the inner north, $95,358,418; the inner south, $52,314,565; Weston Creek, $42,451,730; Woden, $38,717,816; and Tuggeranong, $144,893,538. Based on these figures Canberra taxpayers who will not be using the service will pay about $450 million for construction, let alone operational costs.
The sheer fact that 400 cities around the world have light rail does not mean that it is the right thing to do with Canberrans’ money. Many cities have heavy rail, many have undergrounds, many have ferry services, many have opera houses and stock exchanges. The argument that because others have it therefore we should too is a spurious one.
In fact the government might have a look at the experience of Velez-Malaga in Spain. By all accounts it is a lovely city in the Mediterranean that created a five-kilometre tram track in 2006. That city, just a few years on, shut down its line and its trams are
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