Page 1455 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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If we talk about this figure of $80 billion, this same money could build 70 per cent of the east coast high-speed rail network linking Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, modelled in 2012 by the Department of Infrastructure and Economic Development at $114 billion. This study predicts this network could attract approximately 83.6 million passenger trips by the year 2065. The $80 billion roads budget could build the entire high-speed rail line from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra at $50 billion and still have $30 billion left over for roads. It could build the entire east coast high-speed rail network modelled by Beyond Zero Emissions and the German Aerospace Centre who estimated it at $84 billion, using less tunnelling and bridge building.
Joe Hockey says that his road building plan will create tens of thousands of new jobs and address the significant drop-off in investment in construction in Australia. High-speed rail would easily achieve the same results while at the same time creating a new, faster, more environmentally friendly transport system that would serve Australians long into the future. In light of those comments from Joe Hockey, I have also seen a number of pieces of analysis overnight that have reflected on the fact that modern road building does not actually employ that many people and is now very capital intensive. So I think the notion that this is a significant job creator is one that is open to debate and open to question.
In my capacity as Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, I have looked at how the federal budget will contribute to Canberra’s roads. Warren Truss sent me a letter yesterday to tell me about the government’s infrastructure commitment to the ACT, and I would like to thank Mr Truss for the courtesy of the letter. I was momentarily surprised by the letter when I opened it, as it identified some hundreds of millions of dollars for the ACT, until I looked in the attached spreadsheet and realised that the vast majority of the money was the money already committed by the previous government for the Majura parkway.
It makes one wonder how much of the proposed road funding around Australia is actually just a repackaging of already-committed funds. I have no doubt that that analysis will continue to emerge in the coming days and weeks as people make their way through the details of the budget papers and get more information about it.
I would like to turn to housing and homelessness. Last night’s budget provides a stay of execution to the majority of the nation’s housing and homelessness providers for at least a year but plenty of question marks still remain. With the large national affordable housing agreement funding pool to remain for the next 12 months and the national partnership agreement on homelessness transitional agreement also in place for 12 months, now, more than ever, the sector and the ACT government will need to work together to prepare for and engage with federal policy directions to ensure the ACT does not lose out any further in the coming years.
The cessation of the national rental affordability scheme round 5 allocations will not have an immediate effect on growth of the ACT affordable housing sector but the announcement that it will be reviewed will cause some providers to rethink any future construction at a time when this activity is needed. It is disappointing and slightly
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