Page 1858 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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The Civic plaza enhancement alone has already attracted positive feedback from the community, with the concept design incorporating a central area for better, more people-focused activity between the historic Sydney and Melbourne buildings. It is important also to stress the value that the Canberra Metro consortium brings to Canberra through its combined local, national and international experience in project delivery. Throughout the construction period, its work will help diversify local skill sets, create new industry opportunities and support other sectors in our city, such as education and training, hospitality and engineering, to develop new opportunities for job development and training.
As is the case with other major infrastructure projects undertaken by governments across Australia, the cost of the project is rightly of interest. But we understood this from the start, and we have responded appropriately.
To manage the economic impact to the territory, the project is being delivered through a public-private partnership, and this allows the payments to be made over the life span of the project. These payments will not begin until construction has been completed. That incentivises the Canberra Metro consortium to deliver the project on time.
Once construction is completed, the government will pay a $375 million capital contribution, which is made up of surplus asset sales and a commonwealth contribution from its asset recycling initiative. Availability payments will then be made over time, covering both the construction and operational costs of running the light rail. The availability of payments average $64 million a year over the 20-year period, starting at $47 million in the first 12 months of operation and reaching approximately $75 million in 2038. These availability payments have already been published by the government. They are in future dollars, and simply adding them together will give a very distorted and false result.
As I have stated before, this is an affordable, viable and necessary project to enhance the public transport system for a growing Canberra. In the context of government spending, let me be very clear again: the project accounts for less than one per cent of the ACT government’s total expenditure over the life of the contract term—less than one per cent of total ACT government expenditure over the contract term.
The government is committed to building a city that continues to be one of the most livable in the world. This project is central to that vision. It will provide our city with more choices about how people move around our great city. It will provide foundations to help redevelop urban spaces, increase social and economic participation and revitalise the main gateway to our city. There is no do-nothing option. A revised bus network is admirable, and the work of ACTION to date should not be underestimated. But a bus network alone will not resolve congestion or carry the necessary level of passengers we must anticipate well into the future.
Something often missing from the light rail debate is the fact that light rail, more than buses, has been demonstrated to support the creation of compact, walkable, mixed use communities centred around high quality rail systems. This can be seen in cities
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