Cross River Rail: Unwanted station to boost value of Trad house
It’s the Cross River Rail station planners didn’t want — and it will benefit the investment property purchased by Treasurer Jackie Trad.
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JACKIE Trad’s controversial investment property will benefit from a new train station that the group building the $7 billion Cross River Rail project didn’t want.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the consortium chosen to construct Queensland’s biggest infrastructure project advised against the proposed Boggo Rd station because of significant extra costs and technical concerns.
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Headed by Spanish construction giant CIMIC, the Pulse Consortium wanted to instead use vacant state-owned land next to Princess Alexandra Hospital and link the new station to Boggo Rd via a major footbridge.
The group’s detailed plans, which The Courier-Mail has obtained, mirror a similar proposal by a rival Cross River Rail bidder.
However the proposal was rejected by the Government’s Cabinet Budget Review Committee in April this year in favour of a Boggo Rd station in line with the draft route.
The decision came seven days after a company owned by Ms Trad and her husband bought a $700,000 home in Woolloongabba a short walk from the existing Park Rd station and the planned Boggo Rd station.
It remains unclear whether Ms Trad advised the Cabinet Budget Review Committee of the purchase and her potential conflict of interest as required under the Ministerial Handbook.
The Government has refused to explain why it rejected a station solution that was cheaper, technically superior and back by bidders, as well as senior bureaucrats.
“As was advised by the head of the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority, the procurement for Cross River Rail was a commercial bid process and as such, information provided through the tender process is commercial-in-confidence,” Ms Trad’s spokesman said yesterday.
The Pulse Consortium also refused to comment.
However shadow treasurer Tim Mander said the fact that even the winning bidder wanted an alternative to Boggo Rd was a “bombshell revelation” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk could no longer ignore.
“Taxpayers deserve to know why Labor chose the Boggo Rd station over a station at the Princess Alexandra Hospital,” he said.
“This hasn’t passed the pub test since the start, and Labor’s deceitful actions means it is getting worse by the day.”
Self-described Labor “corruption fighter” Jo-Ann Miller yesterday attempted to quiz bureaucrats about the project in Budget hearings, but was rebuffed on commercial-in-confidence grounds.
However the Pulse Consortium’s plans reveal the new underground Dutton Park station would have been on Kent St and linked with the existing busway.
According to bid sources, the existing Dutton Park station may now have to be shifted south of Annerley Rd, causing resumptions, but still leaving Cross River Rail with two stations within 2km of each other.
Ms Trad faces the prospect of investigations by the Crime and Corruption Commission and State Parliament’s powerful Ethics Committee after she failed to declare the transaction as required on the Register of Member’s Interests.
The Treasurer has promised to sell the property for no profit.
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