Labor says everything points to Crisafulli Government stopping trams to the border
Parliament has heard explosive claims about the future awaiting the southern Gold Coast amid reports the light rail is “finished”.
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The Crisafulli Government is determined to dump light rail Stage Four to the border and create a “transport mess” on the southern Gold Coast, State Parliament has been told.
Opposition transport spokesperson Bart Mellish has seized on a Bulletin report revealing an LNP MP advised that the new Government would not extend the project from Burleigh.
Political sources say the MP in a private chat to a council heavyweight said: “You know as well as I do that light rail is finished. It’s going to Burleigh. It will never go anywhere else.”
Mr Mellish said it was obvious the Government will not commit to the trams beyond Stage 3.
“If they fail to deliver this project to the border their legacy will be turning Burleigh Heads into a bus depot,” he told Parliament.
He said the Government was “lining up to create a mess on the Gold Coast” — noting the project, forecast to be $5.2 billion but potentially as high as $7 billion, was being “taken out of the hands of the transport minister”.
Two concurrent reviews by different departments were underway into light rail Stage Four. This is despite an early business case finding buses resuming more properties and parking.
“We have a $30 million business case jointly funded with the Gold Coast City Council underway and now the Deputy Premier (Jarrod Bleijie) has kicked off his own review through his own director-general, John Sosso,” Mr Mellish said.
“For more than a week when the review started participants did not need to provide ID and could make multiple submissions. That changed mid consultation and participants then needed to make an account and log in.”
Mr Mellish said Mr Bleijie had then confirmed the consultation would be “favouring people on the southern Gold Coast”.
“This is chopping and changing as they go. We all know the purpose of this consultation is to line it up for a cut,” he said.
“Mayor Tom Tate has come out and said that the timing of these negative leaks, as well as the very broad consultation with a lack of information, appears to be setting it up to fail. I agree with the mayor.
“It is clear that the Crisafulli government is chasing a certain outcome and it is clear that the answers they were receiving did not fit their narrative. They are throwing away the answers they do not like and keeping the answers they do like. What is the purpose of the Deputy Premier’s review?”
Mr Mellish referred to Mr Bleijie’s own director-general in a committee meeting earlier this year saying “we are not in the business of supplying to the Deputy Premier the cost of rail projects”.
He also repeated the accusation that Burleigh LNP MP Hermann Vorster had completed “a bigger backflip on this than Peter Dutton has on working from home”, having supported the trams when a councillor.
“As reported in the Gold Coast Bulletin, a State Government MP is telling people it is a done deal. They are telling people that light rail is going to get scrapped. This is history repeating,” Mr Mellish said.
Mr Vorster on Monday strongly supported the government’s consultation, which was an election promise to southern residents.
“State Labor keeps telling the southern Gold Coast what they should want rather than actually listening to our community,” he said.
“The southern Gold Coast voted for a review to make sure we consider all options to deliver a public transport system that works for us.
“We also want to see our koalas, National Park and Tallebudgera Creek protected, which State Labor refused to do.”
Mr Vorster said more than 5000 submissions to the consultation should give the Government a great insight into the priorities and aspirations of southern residents.
“That’s something the former Minister didn’t understand then and is too busy lecturing the southern Gold Coast to understand now,” he said.
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