Barr must be upfront with Canberrans about infrastructure ‘plan’

Canberra Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee is calling on the Chief Minister to be upfront with Canberrans about the Territory’s infrastructure ‘plan’ and to commit to publicly releasing the business case for all projects listed in the plan.

In a motion to be moved in the Legislative Assembly today, Ms Lee will also call on Andrew Barr to report to the Assembly by the last sitting in June 2024 whether the Federal Government has agreed to 50/50 funding and to publish a full list of delayed projects for each region in the next edition of the Our CBR Newsletter.

Ms Lee said Andrew Barr has committed to build Light Rail Stage 2B, a new Northside Hospital, a new Bruce Stadium, a new Canberra Theatre Expansion, a new Convention Centre, as well as other major infrastructure projects estimated to cost over $8.5 billion.

“There have been no businesses cases, estimated completion dates or plan for funding released to Canberrans as part of these announcements, and it is time for Andrew Barr to be upfront with Canberrans,” Ms Lee said.

“When pressed about funding for these projects, Andrew Barr has indicated that he plans to pay for them through 50/50 funding agreements with the Federal Labor Government but there appears to be no firm commitment by the Albanese Labor government to stump up 50% of the cost of any of these projects.

“Debt in the ACT is anticipated to exceed $18 billion in the forward estimates with interest repayments alone to cost Canberrans almost $2 million a day; it is incumbent on Andrew Barr to be upfront with Canberrans about how he intends to pay for all his promises; some that were made over 15 years ago.”

Ms Lee said the Labor-Greens government is very good at making announcements with much fanfare and then re-announcing and rescoping projects but where they fail time and time again is at delivery, highlighted by the significantly delayed Canberra Hospital Expansion and stage 2A of the tram.

“More than half of new capital works projected commenced by major Directorates in the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 budgets have been delayed”, Ms Lee said.

“Expenditure during the same period also shows that the ACT government has failed to spend over $500 million of allocated funds on capital works projects across major Directorates.

“During recent budget review hearings, Andrew Barr revealed that increases to own-source revenue which means taxing Canberrans more, will be considered to fund his spiralling debt costs and to avoid further credit ratings downgrades. Canberrans have every right to know if they will be slugged with more taxes and what they will get for it,” Ms Lee concluded.