Page 115 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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wasted, spent on nothing. The recent transcripts of Mr Coe’s increasingly extreme statements have him promising to tear up the light rail contract even though he does not know what the cost will be. This is reckless in the extreme. In the coming months Canberrans will have time to fully digest what it would mean to tear up a contract in this way. We have already heard clear examples of that—not only the impact of the direct cost of tearing up the contract but the impact on Canberra’s reputation and the failure to deliver the important transport infrastructure that we need.
We should be very clear about this. Sometimes I have heard the Liberal Party, in their less extreme moments, saying, “Maybe five or 10 years down the track we will need it.” If we do not deliver this project now, if this gets cancelled now, it will never happen in Canberra. I think we can boldly make that prediction—certainly in the lifetimes of anybody in this place.
This promise of the Liberals has understandably attracted heavy criticism from the business community, from those involved in infrastructure and even from their own party. Some of the more interesting quotes that members may have heard include the infamous “economic lunatics” from the federal Liberals and “The Canberra Liberals are dead-set wrong on this” from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. I suggest that this is a legacy that will not be forgotten any time soon and can only undermine the reputation of the Canberra Liberals for a very long time to come.
Having made a ridiculous and reckless threat to renege on a major contract and waste millions of dollars, the Liberals now claim it is incumbent on the government to stall the project. That is simply foolish. The burden is not on the government to cease governing and cease building the infrastructure our city needs. The burden is on the Liberal members in here to cease making reckless threats to irresponsibly waste taxpayers’ money.
I note the discussion of the point Mr Coe sought to make this morning about the contract to be signed in month 44 of this term. Of course, it takes time to prepare these documents, to work through the bidding process and to do the work that needs to be done to make sure that this is a well-costed, well-thought-through, well-designed, well-planned project. I am interested to know what the cut-off is. Is it month 40? Is it month 38? When is it appropriate to sign the contract? And the corollary is: how many risks and how many corners should be cut to get inside some arbitrary time frame where Mr Coe thinks that it is not okay to sign a contract anymore? It does take a lot of time. It has been three years or so of solid work to get to this point. That is the time frame of these projects. You cannot stop and start, stutter your way along; you have to get on with the project. This is the time frame the government has been working to, and it is the time frame the government intends to stick to.
I would not support Mr Coe, through this motion, dictating the terms of the critical light rail contract, as he seeks to do in the second part of his motion. The contract will be negotiated and formed by professionals, by people who will be pursuing the best interests of Canberra and the project. The political interests of the Liberal Party will not be one of their considerations.
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