Page 409 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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I would reflect—I know I am probably on thin ice in terms of points of order here—on Miss C Burch’s first speech in this place when she talked about the importance of the efficiency of government. We are working with staff collaboratively across Canberra Health Services and across the hospital system to ensure that resources are used efficiently and to reduce waste. We all have a responsibility, as people who work in the public service and people who work for the benefit of taxpayers, to ensure that our resources are used efficiently and are not wasted.
Light rail—stage 2 cost
MISS C BURCH: My question is to the Minister for Transport. I refer to a Canberra Times article dated 17 February entitled ‘Transport Minister Chris Steel says work to extend the light rail service to the lake is on track’. Minister, how much is light rail stage 2A going to cost?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for her question. As she is aware, we are currently in negotiation with Canberra Metro. We want to make sure that we get the best value for money for the people of the Australian Capital Territory in that negotiation. So we will not be letting the auctioneer know what our loan approval is for the amount of money that we are going to spend on a project going forward before we have gone through that process. As soon as we can make that available to the people of the Australian Capital Territory, we will make it public.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, will you release the detailed costings and cost-benefit analysis of light rail stage 2A prior to work on the project commencing?
MR STEEL: I refer to my previous answer. We will continue to work on negotiations with Canberra Metro because our government is determined to extend the benefits of light rail to other parts of Canberra. We want to make sure that it goes down to Woden and to other parts of Canberra.
Mrs Jones: I have a point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat please, minister.
Mrs Jones: The question has not been answered, on relevance, and the minister has gone off on his political tirade already. We are looking for the answer to the question: will he release detailed costings prior to work commencing? I do not think it is a weird thing to ask, and the minister has not answered it at all.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Jones, you took a point of order 40 seconds into the answer. The minister is on topic about the costings and the programs of light rail.
MR STEEL: Thank you. I did refer to my answer to the first question that was asked of me, which was that when we can provide those costings we will, publicly. We are currently going through that negotiation. Once that is concluded we will provide those costings as soon as we can. Our government is determined to make sure that we extend the benefits of light rail to other parts of Canberra. We have seen to huge success of light rail—
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