The ACT government dismisses $89.5 million as Liberal pork barreling promised to fixing roads. Katy Gallagher pops the same amount into the tram black hole. And the difference is? Another “Seven Days” with IAN MEIKLE.

SO, we asked the Minister for Finance if she’d seen the business case for Light Rail Stage 2A before doling out $85.9 million to it in the recent federal Budget. You’d think, right?

This is the promised money the ACT government has snaffled from three major road projects in the south and tossed it into the black hole that is building 1.7 kilometres of light-rail track and three new stations – City West, City South and Commonwealth Park. 

It is estimated (raise eyebrows here) to cost $265 million, will start in January 2024 and finish two years later. What stops tight-lipped Transport Minister Chris Steel from sharing this publicly available information just plays into the furtive way the ACT government manages the excesses of light rail. Silence.

So we asked Steel: “In light of the ACT’s decade-high road toll, is now an appropriate time to turn down or redirect funding for three major road upgrades?” Silence. 

Astonishingly, he subsequently disowned the road funding, claiming the south-west corridor upgrade ($50.9 million), the Kings Highway corridor ($30 million) and the Boboyan Road upgrade ($5 million) amounted to pork-barrelling. 

“It had literally no substance, it was all pork,” Steel said, which is a bit rich coming from the team that won’t show you the shaky business case for Light Rail Stage 2A.

Which gets us back to former chief minister Katy Gallagher, ostensibly the “mother” of the tram, who should have seen it. I’m also given to muse whether, as federal finance minister, if she isn’t a little bit compromised by being seen to be publicly piling cash into this project. 

It was she who, in 2014, famously “drew a line in the sand” on Stage 1 to Gungahlin, saying cabinet would not support a cost substantially beyond $614 million. 

The reportage of the day makes hilarious reading as her government virtuously huffs and puffs about controlling the costs of light rail.

In ruling out a “blank cheque”, she’s quoted as saying: ”We’re going to be sensible with this project, we’re not going to be silly.” 

However, in a 2016 report, then auditor-general Maxine Cooper found the nominal cost would be as much as $1.78 billion over the project’s 20-year lifespan. She also urged caution against claims the project would deliver $198 million in wider economic benefits.

Now as federal Finance Minister, Katy responded to our business case question with uncharacteristic avoidance and waffle, which I will spare you. But she did say: “It was clear that the infrastructure projects that were announced by former Senator Seselja had little evidence to show that they stacked up or no supportive business case that demonstrated good return on investment”. 

They’re my italics, but it would be lovely to know what she thinks constitutes “a good return on investment” and how it might relate to Stage 2A.

Back to the minister: “We consulted with the ACT government, which made clear that the priority project for the ACT was Stage 2A of the light rail project and that is why we have redirected funding in this Budget.

“Canberrans rightly expect that their taxpayer money will be spent with the best bang for buck and deliver the best outcome for our city, and that is the approach that they will get from the Albanese Labor government.”

Yes, yes, but did you actually sight the supporting business case? Katy, hello? Silence. 

Pretty well all we, the great unwashed, know is what ACT auditor-general Michael Harris says in his damning 2021 report, “Canberra Light Rail Stage 2A: Economic Analysis”, that its cost to Commonwealth Park may have been underestimated and the project’s economic benefits overstated. Imagine that. 

In urging Major Projects Canberra to revisit the assumptions underpinning the economic analysis, he recommended they make publicly available the revised and updated economic analysis in an updated Stage 2A business case. If they won’t show Katy, what hope have taxpayers got? 

THE corks would have been poppin’ in Tramalot Castle on London Circuit to the news that brave Emma Campbell was stepping down in January as CEO of the ACT Council of Social Service. 

She has been an irrepressible thorn in the side of this mean and heartless government, challenging it constantly on homelessness, poverty and social housing.

My snouts say the fix was in and constituent members of the peak ACTCOSS body were getting weak-kneed at suggestions of, say, funding cuts if they didn’t make changes. True or not, Campbell’s done a wonderful job of constantly shaming the government on behalf of Canberra’s disadvantaged. Another deck cleared for the 2024 election, comrades? 

WELL, at least one tree is getting some protection in this denuded city. Trouble is, it appears to have missed its spring blossoming and might possibly be, well, dead. 

But, dead or not, it is resolutely and protectively barricaded off behind a sign saying: “Tree protection zone” beside some road works on Parkes Way. My inner-north snout sent the photo in an email he titled simply “Emblematic!”. 

Ian Meikle is the editor of “CityNews” and can be heard with Rod Henshaw on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” news and interview program, 2CC, 9am-noon. There are more of his columns on citynews.com.au