One fifth of voters conflicted over light rail: poll

rommeldog56 said :

TramCostBlowOut said :

Prior to the 2012 election the ALP committed to spend $30 million for a light rail feasibility study. Former Chief Minister Katy Gallagher claimed that the Government wouldn’t go ahead with light rail if it cost more than $614 million. But the $614 million cost limit was ditched as soon as the Government needed Shane Rattenbury’s vote to stay in power. The ACT Auditor estimates that the true cost for 12 kms of light rail from Gungahlin – Civic will be $1.7 billion. The cost of works on Commonwealth Ave bridge will mean Civic – Woden will be even more expensive. Any voters interested in the facts about light rail should listen to the University of Canberra debate between Professor Barbara Norman & Dr David Hughes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajWdOFLTf0&feature=youtu.be

Yep – the ongoing running costs and capital works costs were conveniently just not quantified, if not ignored when the m$614 figure was being thrown about by ACT Labor in the run up to the 2012 election. A sucker punch to ACT Ratepayers, who admittedly were gullible or apathetic enough to believe it !

Will voters/ratepayers again be gullible and apathetic enough to be swayed by ACT Labors promise to sign contracts by 2020 to extend the tram to Woden as stage 2, without even ACT Labor/Greens disclosing the cost of that ?

Nah, surely not. The ACT prides itself as having the best educated and politically astute voters in the country. So, why would they hand ACT Labor a blank cheque for stage 2 ?

Then again…..

Confirmed in last paragraph 2 posts back.

TramCostBlowOut said :

Prior to the 2012 election the ALP committed to spend $30 million for a light rail feasibility study. Former Chief Minister Katy Gallagher claimed that the Government wouldn’t go ahead with light rail if it cost more than $614 million. But the $614 million cost limit was ditched as soon as the Government needed Shane Rattenbury’s vote to stay in power. The ACT Auditor estimates that the true cost for 12 kms of light rail from Gungahlin – Civic will be $1.7 billion. The cost of works on Commonwealth Ave bridge will mean Civic – Woden will be even more expensive. Any voters interested in the facts about light rail should listen to the University of Canberra debate between Professor Barbara Norman & Dr David Hughes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajWdOFLTf0&feature=youtu.be

Yep – the ongoing running costs and capital works costs were conveniently just not quantified, if not ignored when the m$614 figure was being thrown about by ACT Labor in the run up to the 2012 election. A sucker punch to ACT Ratepayers, who admittedly were gullible or apathetic enough to believe it !

Will voters/ratepayers again be gullible and apathetic enough to be swayed by ACT Labors promise to sign contracts by 2020 to extend the tram to Woden as stage 2, without even ACT Labor/Greens disclosing the cost of that ?

Nah, surely not. The ACT prides itself as having the best educated and politically astute voters in the country. So, why would they hand ACT Labor a blank cheque for stage 2 ?

Then again…..

Prior to the 2012 election the ALP committed to spend $30 million for a light rail feasibility study. Former Chief Minister Katy Gallagher claimed that the Government wouldn’t go ahead with light rail if it cost more than $614 million. But the $614 million cost limit was ditched as soon as the Government needed Shane Rattenbury’s vote to stay in power. The ACT Auditor estimates that the true cost for 12 kms of light rail from Gungahlin – Civic will be $1.7 billion. The cost of works on Commonwealth Ave bridge will mean Civic – Woden will be even more expensive. Any voters interested in the facts about light rail should listen to the University of Canberra debate between Professor Barbara Norman & Dr David Hughes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajWdOFLTf0&feature=youtu.be

justin heywood said :

Actually, the more interesting statistic is that of the 20% of conflicted voters, 16% of them are Labor/Green voters who are anti light rail. Only 4% of Liberal voters are pro-tram.

Still, you’ve only got to look at forums like this to see that support or opposition to light rail largely follows along party lines. The Liberals need to work a bit harder to expose the gaping flaws in the plan.

The light rail to Gunghalin folly should be an absolute gift to any competent opposition.

The Liberals, like Labor, have few members who have actually risked a dollar of their own so they find it difficult to articulate why this light rail folly is going to bankrupt the Territory apart from saying “whatever Labor does we will do the opposite”.

Unfortunately, Val Jeffery’s time in the assembly came to late.

Val is one person who would be able to explain in once sentence why the light rail is a right fail.

As most voters in the ACT are employed by the PS they don’t understand the value of a dollar either so, as you suggest, they will follow party lines so a Labor win is inevitable.

rommeldog56 said :

justin heywood said :

The Liberals need to work a bit harder to expose the gaping flaws in the plan. The light rail to Gunghalin folly should be an absolute gift to any competent opposition.

How about this for ACT Lib’s campaign :

The 2012 ACT Legislative Assembly election, ACT Labor said it would build a Tram between Gunners-City for a construction cost of m$614.

Recently the ACT Auditor General said that the truce cost to ACT Ratepayers, including running costs, was b$1.78.

Never mind, only a slight increase I suppose.

Now, for the 2016 election, ACT Labor/Greens say that Tram Stage 2 will now not go to the airport, but will instead from Civic to Woden. Contracts to be signed (and i think, work commenced) before the 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election.

No word on how it will cross the lake (closing of 1 lane each way on Commonwealth Ave bridges is likely). Unlike in 2012, no word on the cost.

So, give the real cost of stage 1 (as identified by the ACT Auditor General), is it any wonder that ACT labor/Greens are staying mute on the cost of this new Stage 2 to Woden.

And people “trust” ACT Labor/Greens ?

What I simply do not understand, is how ACT Ratepayers/Voters can give this ACT Labor/Greens Gov’t what is essentially a blank cheque for Stage 2.

To do so would be an ultimate display of apathy and irresponsibility.

In my view, this is a watershed election in the ACT. If ACT Labor/Greens retain power, I can never see the Lib’s gaining Government here, so it will be more of what we have had in the past 13 years or so, forever – depressingly.

There is more chance of local government administrators being appointed to sort out the latent ACT financial mess before the Canberra Liberals are elected.

justin heywood said :

The Liberals need to work a bit harder to expose the gaping flaws in the plan. The light rail to Gunghalin folly should be an absolute gift to any competent opposition.

How about this for ACT Lib’s campaign :

The 2012 ACT Legislative Assembly election, ACT Labor said it would build a Tram between Gunners-City for a construction cost of m$614.

Recently the ACT Auditor General said that the truce cost to ACT Ratepayers, including running costs, was b$1.78. Never mind, only a slight increase I suppose.

Now, for the 2016 election, ACT Labor/Greens say that Tram Stage 2 will now not go to the airport, but will instead from Civic to Woden. Contracts to be signed (and i think, work commenced) before the 2020 ACT Legislative Assembly election.

No word on how it will cross the lake (closing of 1 lane each way on Commonwealth Ave bridges is likely). Unlike in 2012, no word on the cost.

So, give the real cost of stage 1 (as identified by the ACT Auditor General), is it any wonder that ACT labor/Greens are staying mute on the cost of this new Stage 2 to Woden.

And people “trust” ACT Labor/Greens ?

What I simply do not understand, is how ACT Ratepayers/Voters can give this ACT Labor/Greens Gov’t what is essentially a blank cheque for Stage 2.

To do so would be an ultimate display of apathy and irresponsibility. In my view, this is a watershed election in the ACT. If ACT Labor/Greens retain power, I can never see the Lib’s gaining Government here, so it will be more of what we have had in the past 13 years or so, forever – depressingly.

Actually, the more interesting statistic is that of the 20% of conflicted voters, 16% of them are Labor/Green voters who are anti light rail. Only 4% of Liberal voters are pro-tram.

Still, you’ve only got to look at forums like this to see that support or opposition to light rail largely follows along party lines. The Liberals need to work a bit harder to expose the gaping flaws in the plan.

The light rail to Gunghalin folly should be an absolute gift to any competent opposition.

Grail said :

I pity the poor fools voting Liberal because they promise two new hospitals, only to find that the Liberal approach to healthcare is to approve development of two private hospitals while withdrawing funding for health and preventative services.

The Liberals will (of course) claim credit for two new hospitals despite worsening quality of life for everyone who isn’t a consulting professional based at the new private hospitals.

Liberals: anti-Medicare, anti-welfare, anti-you.

The Liberals have been saying the new hospitals in Tuggeranong & Gungahlin will be public, not private and they’ve committed increased funding for indigenous health care and other community sector initiatives. I think if anyone needs to find an example of blind Labor/Greens loyalty and anti-Liberal bias they just need to read your post.

Grail said :

I pity the poor fools voting Liberal because they promise two new hospitals, only to find that the Liberal approach to healthcare is to approve development of two private hospitals while withdrawing funding for health and preventative services.

The Liberals will (of course) claim credit for two new hospitals despite worsening quality of life for everyone who isn’t a consulting professional based at the new private hospitals.

Liberals: anti-Medicare, anti-welfare, anti-you.

This is what the Labor Party shelved some 3 years ago, but now they are scared of an election defeat. The 10 years “to focus on making sure that the hospital system is more efficient” (Quote from Mr. Corbell, ABC News June 2016) must have already passed and their original plan to build this shelved option is alive again. So does that mean my wait for elective surgery (non-urgent because me being unable to work and suffering chronic pain daily doesn’t count) is only going to be another 6 years away? The system is broken NOW and waiting another 6 years for a building is not going to fix it. The system needs people and spending sooner, instead of wasting the cash on a tramsport system we don’t need.
Asa for the Liberals, they are proposing the same deal as Labor, with an extra 200 million dollars to boot, plus they will have the cash to do it, whilst Labor keeps promising spending with a purse that has a huge hole in the bottom. Where is the ,money coming from Labor?
Oh, that’s right, from our tripling (crippling) rates and other levies added to our annual bills.
We had a phone survey last night asking about the election and the tram, I wonder what the results of that one are going to be.

I pity the poor fools voting Liberal because they promise two new hospitals, only to find that the Liberal approach to healthcare is to approve development of two private hospitals while withdrawing funding for health and preventative services.

The Liberals will (of course) claim credit for two new hospitals despite worsening quality of life for everyone who isn’t a consulting professional based at the new private hospitals.

Liberals: anti-Medicare, anti-welfare, anti-you.