The Betrayal of the Electorate.
It all began with pork. No, not the leg of cured pork or ham, a favorite at Christmas parties. The pork of this story is that which Minister Steel used to downgrade the upgrading of roads, arguing that Federal funds for the roads should be used to extend the tram to Commonwealth Park instead. He referred to ‘pork barreling’, generally defined as “the utilization of government funds for projects designed to please voters or legislators and win votes. “
Such a commitment of funds in return for a vote occurred in 2012. The population of Gungahlin was growing rapidly and the Red Rapid bus service from Gungahlin to Civic was one of the most profitable bus routes. Nevertheless, the government commissioned a report on the feasibility of running a light rail service on this route and in April 2012 the company URS submitted their ‘City to Gungahlin Transit Corridor: Concept Design Report’. This compared a light rail transit (LRT) system with a bus rapid transit (BRT) system and the option of keeping the status quo. The report stated that the BRT had roughly twice the benefit-cost ratio of light rail, would cost less than half to establish and would provide the same stimulus for development as LRT. Being ‘commercial in confidence’, the report was kept secret (now on the internet) and the public was simply told that light rail was the better transit system.
No doubt, the reason why the public was not told the whole story was that the 2012 election had resulted in equal votes for Labor and Liberals, and Labor decided to obtain the additional vote required to stay in power by a commitment to light rail, regardless of the cost to the electorate. (For details and documentation see Walter Burley Griffin’s Canberra and his Tramway. The Ideal City of the Future? (Part Two of Three) (canberraplanningactiongroup.com).
Thanks to Jon Stanhope’s and Khalid Ahmed’s detailed presentation of the government’s budget figures, we now know the cost to the electorate of this political decision. It is also thanks to their careful research that we found out why the public housing system is in desperate straits with long waiting lists. Existing public housing was sold and the money plus a Federal subsidy was used for the light rail. Now, again, money to improve roads is siphoned off for the extension of the tram to Commonwealth Park. Not just the report of the Auditor General, but also that commissioned by the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts from Dr Leo Dobes found the business case of this project unconvincing.
The Albanese government promised that projects without a convincing business case would not be funded, and pork barreling would be eliminated. It has failed on both accounts. Even though the new e-buses can do everything and more than the tram, it appears the Greens vote must still be obtained in return for the white elephant of the tram. Paul Costigan reflects the sentiment of many when he writes ‘Damming reports but the government just shrugs.’
The Liberals reverse course concerning the tram is not a betrayal as Minister Steel calls it. The betrayal of the public happened in 2012. The Opposition is giving the electorate a last chance in 2024 to stop having a government that ‘just shrugs’, misleading the public to enforce a mode of public transport that is slow, outdated, produces large amounts of CO2 building the infrastructure, and, worst of all, leaves the next generation of Canberrans with a crushing debt.
As Ian Meikle reminds us, it’s all the fault of the public who kept electing this government. Or could it be due to the expertise of the public relations company engaged at the electorate’s expense as outlined in the article referenced above?

Trams are “old fashioned.” Genius! You think of that all by yourself, or did you copy it from any of the ten thousand right wing anit-tram groups out there? Even a modest tram carries more passengers than a bus, meaning fewer operators to carry the same load of passengers. In addition, the reason that streetcars and light rail cause increased development is because of the very point the bus suckers miss: the line isn’t going to over to serve some competitor;’s development next Tuesday. Operating expenses for any bus are higher per-passenger than for a tram line. Construction expenses are higher for a tram, but that’s a one-time expense. Operating costs continue on to infinity.

Old fashioned? Yeah – like a lead pencil. You can still buy those by the box at the local office supply store, even though the graphite-in-wood pencil reached its current form in 1560. Yes, the modern pencil has improved materials and such, but, like the tram, when you have the basics right, you don’t need to change. Proof of that? Sure! Not a single one of your magic bus junkboxes that doesn’t try to hide those giant tires, so they can pretend to be a tram. No trams anywhere have big, black circles painted on them to pretend to be a bus. It’s always the inferior fake that has to pretend to be something it isn’t.