Firstly, a big thank you to the ACT Veterans Rugby club, the Pacific Barbarians and their families (especially player of the tournament “the Honourable Boof”) for raising over $8,000 last Saturday towards the Tongan Tsunami/Volcano Relief fund. Also a big tick for Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese for highlighting the need to do more to help our aged sector, but a big minus for his bizarre comment about the Solomons choosing to back China over Australia because we had not done enough on climate change (I don’t think that’s the reason, Albo, as China has 2,990 coal-fired power stations compared to our 20 and is building another 245 last count).
The local news of the week is the strange decision of the National Capital Authority to approve the ACT Government’s plan to destroy Capital Hill and cause chaos for the next four years in Civic by moving over 6,000 tonnes of soil from Capital Hill to build stage 2 of the tram [light rail] line to the lake and then over the lake to Woden, cutting down all the lovely 100-year-old trees along Commonwealth Avenue in the process. (I thought the Greens were meant to be into trees.)
I think this is madness. How many Civic businesses will be destroyed over the next four years and how much will this all cost? Stage 2A alone is due to cost well over $2 billion. Trams are an old 19th century inefficient form of transport. If it is to be built it should go a cheaper, better route, i.e., around London Circuit, out to Acton Peninsula, then across the lake and onto Woden. This route saves any need to touch Capital Hill and saves the heritage trees along Canberra Avenue (i.e., prominent but now retired Canberra architect Jack Kershaw’s solution).
The question must be asked: do we need it at all? No critical economic cost benefit study seems to have been done and the Barr ALP is just doing it to appease Shane Rattenbury and the Greens. No need for that, Andrew; they will never vote Liberal.
The tram is [predicted to be] 15 minutes slower than the current bus service (30 minutes as opposed to the 15-minute bus trip at present) and 10 times more expensive than an electric bus service. The thousands of tonnes of concrete and the steel rails needed to construct the project will cause a significant amount of extra greenhouse gas emissions in their own right. I have talked to many people in Woden, Weston Creek and Tuggeranong and no one wants the tram. Many would prefer the money to be spent on hospitals.
Where are the Canberra Liberals in all this? I’d suggest to them their two local Woden reps should run a survey of Woden/Weston residents and see what they think. It might be prudent to also ask, when telling people the cost of the project, what they wanted the money spent on if the tram did not go ahead.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Canberra Daily.
