Mayoral hopefuls fire shots over transport

PUBLIC transport remains one of the key issues as Brisbane lord mayoral candidates went head to head in City Hall, each tearing down the other’s plans.

Mayoral hopefuls fire shots over transport

PUBLIC transport, congestion and development remained the key issues as the Brisbane lord mayoral candidates went head to head in City Hall for the final debate before voters go to the polls today.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk promoted his experience and warned voters “don’t risk Labor”, while his challenger Rod Harding said it was time for change because the incumbent had his chance and had “achieved very little”.

It has been the closest council contest for more than a decade, with the result expected to go down to the wire.

Bunting was going up last night, as well as LNP signs comparing Mr Harding to past and present Labor state and federal leaders such as Anna Bligh, Kevin Rudd and Annastacia Palaszczuk, with the words “is it worth the risk?”

As the debate began in City Hall yesterday, Mr Harding fired shots at Cr Quirk’s costings, which identified $1.2 billion in new funding, but no savings to pay for it.

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“Graham Quirk has to find $1.2 billion. He’s got to borrow that or find savings,” he said.

“Rates under a Harding administration will always be lower than under a Graham Quirk administration.”

But the Lord Mayor rejected the claim, saying he had proven capable of keeping a strong credit rating for the city.

“We have demonstrated we can build big infrastructure for the city and still maintain fair rates,” he said.

“Rates are something we have always handled in a fair way.”

Billion-dollar rail plans are central to the election promises of both major parties.

The LNP has promised a $1.54 billion Metro rail, providing high-frequency travel to the city from Herston and Woolloongabba, while Labor’s $1.2 billion light rail is pledged to link the city with Newstead, West End and the University of Queensland.

Cr Quirk said his Metro rail had “10 times the capacity” of light rail and would deliver guaranteed travel times for commuters to the CBD.

He said every study into light rail in Brisbane had shown its streets were too narrow to cope.

“To this time we have not heard how the light rail can be put down the streets of Brisbane with those narrow streets,” Cr Quirk said.

Mr Harding, while attacking the Metro rail proposal, said light rail would be “transformational” and he would encourage public transport use with “fare free Fridays”.

“Graham Quirk is adding 500m of tunnel (to existing busways) and putting fancy buses on it,” he said.

Greens lord mayoral candidate Ben Pennings said both major parties’ public transport policies were expensive while relying on funding from federal and state governments.

“Our plan … is using our existing public transport infrastructure better,” he said.