SYDNEY METRO BILL FOR HIGH RISE PASSED IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

MEANWHILE Robbo is making much of the 12 month pause for Ryde and Canterbury …

ALL COUNCILS NEED UNITE WITH RYDE TO SAVE WHAT REMAINS OF SYDNEY

Wednesday, 16 May 2018

PROOF Page 8

BILLS TRANSPORT ADMINISTRATION AMENDMENT (SYDNEY METRO) BILL 2018

Second Reading Debate

Debate resumed from 15 May 2018.

EXCERPT FROM Dr MEHREEN FARUQI (11:20)

“This is neither a holistic approach to transport planning, nor is this value capture.

This is simply a ticket to massive overdevelopment where there are no measures or protections in place for established communities around these proposed metro stations.

Their absolute disregard for communities and democratic planning is galling.

This Government is ripping up the perfectly functional Sydenham to Bankstown rail line, which is publicly owned and operated, to build a metro and hand it over to private operators.

The line will be closed for months for no good reason and tens of thousands of commuters will be subjected to seven years of pain and inconvenience.

Massive areas of land along the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor have been rezoned and are being snatched away from local communities. This is a bonanza for developers.

This is nothing but a toxic mix of overdevelopment and privatisation.

Why cannibalise our existing lines? Why not expand public transport to areas that have no rail lines?

Rest assured, there are plenty of those to pick from. Unfortunately, the bill before the House leaves no doubt as to the real motives of this Government”

“This bill makes much more sense when we look at this Government’s track record and find that there is nothing the Government has touched in the State that it has not wanted to privatise and sell off.

In the Government’s few years in office, many of the State’s assets have been privatised.

There has been a tragic wholesale privatisation of public transport in Newcastle and the privatisation of inner west buses in Sydney against the clearly and loudly expressed views of the community.

In his second reading speech the Minister spoke of the Government’s Future Transport Strategy. For anyone still in doubt about the Government’s hunger for privatisation, the Future Transport Strategy clearly states that:

NSW will create a service ecosystem where government enables service innovation and is no longer the default service provider.

This is a frightening future where all of our public services have been sold off and the taxpaying public is at the mercy of commercial service providers and market conditions.

The Future Transport Strategy further states:

…the role for government will be to get out of the way and allow the market to deliver services. It is as clear as day that this Government wants to prop up assets using forced land acquisitions and taxpayer funds, only to fatten them up and flog them off to the highest bidder.”

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