Page 111 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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how wrong they are. Do they seriously think the private sector partner will continue to deliver light rail at the same cost they bid in November last year in 12 months time? If contracts are not signed until November or December—almost a year after they bid their price—do the Liberals seriously think the price is going to be the same? We have very clear advice from leading national business figures—people like Jennifer Westacott, the head of the Business Council of Australia, and others. Jennifer Westacott has said very clearly that cancelling light rail contracts is false economy because the private sector will simply price that risk into future contracts for future projects.
So that is the recklessness we have from those opposite. We already know that their federal Liberal counterparts regard them as economic lunatics—economic lunatics—for wanting to tear up contracts. They have been urged by some of the leading national business figures in the country to refrain from this economic lunacy. Every other Liberal government in the country repudiates their position, but they continue with it.
We saw the extent of the recklessness embodied in the Liberals’ approach in the interview Mr Coe gave on ABC TV last week. He could not answer the question on how much his policy was going to cost, but he said, “That doesn’t matter. I don’t care how much it costs. I’m going to do it.” Is this the approach we expect from those opposite? Is this the approach we expect from a potential future government of the territory? “Our policy is we don’t know how much our policy costs, but we’re going to implement it anyway.” No wonder their federal counterparts consider them reckless and economic lunatics.
This government has been clear and unequivocal from the beginning—we want to see better public transport for our city, and we are starting on one of the busiest and most congested corridors in our city. That corridor has been assessed by Infrastructure Australia itself as one of the most congested in our city. It needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed in a manner befitting the significance of that corridor as the front door to the national capital.
We are investing in a piece of infrastructure that will deliver guaranteed reliable and frequent public transport services for the next 25 to 50 to 80 years. As congestion continues to grow on the roads, as more and more people continue to try to get to and from work in the mornings, light rail will still be there in 2025, in 2035 and in 2045, delivering exactly the same journey times and transporting people quickly, reliably and frequently to their destinations. We are bringing some of the largest urban rail operators nationally and internationally to our city, bringing their expertise and skills and experience, to make this a world-class project that all Canberrans can enjoy.
We heard from those opposite that apparently we should have signed contracts two years ago or three years ago. That seemed to be part of Mr Coe’s argument. Does he seriously think that delivering a large-scale infrastructure project like this occurs with six months worth of planning? The answer is simply that it does not. That again highlights the naivety and the recklessness of the shadow minister and his failure to understand the significant effort, planning, analysis and work that needs to be undertaken to deliver this type of infrastructure project. It is called an infrastructure pipeline for a reason: it takes time to develop it, to grow it, to finalise it.
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