Page 2748 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 16 September 2014
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And again:
Dumbest. Idea. Ever.
Costs will blow out to closer to $1 billion.
The empty buses that run this exact same route now can be held up waiting for an empty train to pass by.
What an utter waste of money! There are more urgent things that money could be spent on. Typical Government waste.
Or how about:
What about the rest of Canberra? That money can go to something better. Gungahlin is a small part of Canberra. What about the rest of the people. It’s just rude and annoying and a waste of money for such a small part of Canberra’s population.
As I mentioned before, those views were shared by listeners on a radio station’s Facebook pages this morning.
However, regardless of popular opinion, this government is arrogant enough to steamroll ahead with this project, all for the sake of keeping its ideological fires burning. This project is not viable, this project is not affordable, many Canberrans will not benefit from it, yet light rail will continue to sit as the cornerstone of this government’s agenda.
Now what exactly are the priorities of the current government besides an almost $800 million train set? The Chief Minister stated in the media on the 12th of this month:
The cabinet has agreed that hospitals, schools, public transport and asbestos are now the four key priorities for the government to work on for the next five years … outside of that, there isn’t going to be much else.
In other words, this government have failed to prepare for the future and have failed to properly assess the future priorities of this city over the past 13 years. They have failed to plan with a budget in deficit for some years to come. The time has now come to shift around some of the priorities. Unfortunately, though, the priorities that they have chosen are not necessarily the ones needed in our city the most. Our hospitals have consistently had the longest waiting times in the country. Our school infrastructure is not keeping pace with the community’s needs and is bursting at the seams. Our roads, footpaths and shopping centres are all falling into disrepair, particularly in Tuggeranong and southern parts of Canberra, as the infrastructure ages. ACTION continues to cost money while patronage is not improving.
All of this neglect has not happened overnight. These issues have been on a downward spiral for years. Madam Assistant Speaker, after 13 years of office, many
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