Editorial: Light rail is costing NSW billions so let’s hope it will be a success once completed
Good news — the state government has done an admirable job delivering infrastructure projects and asset sales. But the bad news is one project, the light rail, continues to be a problem for Gladys Berejiklian.
Opinion
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Let’s be clear about two things. First, the good news. The indisputable fact is that the state government has done an admirable job delivering both infrastructure projects and asset sales, setting NSW up well, not just for the present but for the future.
Which is lovely, except for the bad news. Namely, that Sydney’s light rail project continues to be a major blot on Gladys Berejiklian’s copybook and a drag on the balance sheet of this state.
Monday’s revelations that the state government had paid another $576 million of your money to end a bitter feud with the project’s builders and operators Acciona and ALTRAC only further spread the stain.
All up, the final bill for the project is approaching $3 billion — or an extraordinary $225 million per kilometre. It is shocking to think of the number of classrooms that could have been built or hospital beds that could have been provided with this overspend alone.
Put aside the wisdom of ripping up Sydney’s main north-south traffic artery to undertake some trendy urbanist boondoggle.
As a practical matter this project has been a mess from the moment Gladys Berejiklian, as the then-transport minister, signed off on it, thinking she had cleverly come up with a political solution to a problem that never existed.
It is now clear with the benefit of hindsight that the project was terribly misconceived, and that there was little to no proper due diligence about what exactly was involved in digging up streets in an area so dense with existing services.
Likewise, it is also clear that the state allowed itself to be put over a barrel by the contractors responsible, having signed off on contracts that capped damages payable by the builders for delays at a paltry $7.5 million.
The complexity and cost stand in contrast to the just-opened Metro Northwest which, while plagued with teething problems of its own, was delivered with relative ease and, crucially, under budget.
That project, which cost $8.3 billion to install 52.5km of track, involved far more complicated work including boring long tunnels through rock, came in both under-budget and at a cost of around $158 million per kilometre.
For that sort of money, one has to wonder why they didn’t just dig a proper Metro in Sydney instead.
We hope that when it eventually opens, the light rail is a success. But it will still always stand as a monument to the triumph of politics over practicality.
MAKING A GRIM ANNIVERSARY
When asked about Chinese warships in Sydney Harbour on Monday morning, Scott Morrison remarked, “It may have been a surprise to others, but it certainly wasn’t a surprise to the government”.
Well, we should hope not. But more seriously, we also cannot help but note their presence on a “reciprocal visit” on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when the Chinese government slaughtered an untold number of its own citizens for the crime of speaking up for democracy.
It’s an event that should always be remembered, even as China’s leaders in Beijing go to great lengths to hope the world forgets.
DISQUIET ON WESTERN FRONT
Faced first with the rejection of their party at the polls, many Labor supporters in Western Sydney now feel like they have been rejected by their own party given the composition of the shadow cabinet.
The Daily Telegraph reports that having seen Ed Husic, the well-liked MP for Chifley, leapfrogged for former state premier turned Senator, Kristina Keneally, many in the area are saying they feel the call was “heartbreaking”.
Local community leader Zahida Cardakilja said it was a shame Husic was passed over, particularly given the good example Husic set for young members of the local Bosnian and Muslim communities.
Former Labor MP David Borger was just as critical, saying, “Look, I think Western Sydney needs Ed in the main team … he does need to be on the front bench”.
Labor will, of course, make its own decision about its own leadership. But given its position after the last election, alienating areas that swung against them with internal politics would seem to run counter to returning to government.