Page 2584 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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and complicated project, so it is a prime target for a policy-free opposition to pick as an election campaign vehicle to try and stir up negativity, to run a series of misconceptions on—and they are out there. We know it.
Let us just take today’s promise on the hospital. They have come out and said that $375 million on light rail is going to cost some Dr Evil-type, finger-in-the-mouth billions of dollars approach. This is the approach that we have seen from the Liberal Party. If you want to have an apples with apples comparison, let us talk about capital cost straight up. No, we have not seen that approach from the Liberal Party. We have seen an approach where they are willing to distort stories, to mislead the community, by giving out figures that are not a fair comparison and they are not an even comparison. It is an approach that they are happy to take because it is politically expedient for them. I think that the Canberra community will see through that.
What the community will also understand is that we do need to plan for the future of this city. Look at the Northbourne corridor, for example. It is a corridor that is already at congestion capacity. This corridor will grow to about 85,000 people in just 15 years. Here we have a recipe for problems, including congestion and delays for both private and public transport. We have a plan that responds to this. Light rail is high capacity and space efficient. It catalyses denser development and urban renewal. The evidence shows that light rail encourages more people to public transport than other modes such as buses. It will ensure this corridor continues to be not only usable but much improved in its urban environment.
With a Liberal government and without light rail, where will this corridor be in just five or 10 years, let alone 15, 20 or 30 years? People will be unhappy; that is for sure. We will have to struggle somewhere down the line to try and retrofit solutions and that will be even more difficult and more expensive than doing it now. One of the most shining demonstrations of the Liberal Party’s myopic and selfish focus is the Liberals’ admission on numerous occasions that Canberra will need light rail in the coming decades anyway. And that is the guts of the position. Ms Fitzharris has just outlined the various previous times that the Liberal Party have outlined the necessity for light rail for Canberra, on repeated occasions at different times.
Then the conservative faction of the Liberal Party took over. Zed Seselja and Alistair Coe started to dominate the agenda of the Liberal Party here in the ACT and in 2012 we saw an agenda that was all about more car parks and more roads. It was all about the private motor vehicle, the fleet of Audis that Ms Fitzharris just reminded us of. That is what happened. The ultraconservatives, those that have got—
Members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, members!
MR RATTENBURY: It is all about the private motor vehicle. It is not about social infrastructure. That is what we have seen dominate the Liberal Party in recent times.
Mrs Jones interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Jones, please do not interject.
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