Is Clover serious about light rail?
June 6th, 2006Media Release
At last night’s City of Sydney council meeting Greens Cr. Chris Harris offered the Lord Mayor the chance to put real substance behind her constant media calls for light rail. The Lord Mayor, Ms. Clover Moore, not only refused the offer but used her casting vote to veto the opportunity.
This was after the Lord Mayor’s office had leaked two reports on light rail thirty six hours earlier to the media but had waited until one hour before the council meeting to hand over those same reports to city councillors. Why?
Greens Cr Harris : “The Lord Mayor is abusing the media and council funds for her own political gain. Everyone but the councillors seems to know what’s going on at council. Last night as the Greens City Councillor I introduced an amendment to the Minute on light rail requesting that the Sydney City Council support a tripartite agreement between ourselves and the State and Federal Governments to equally share the costs of creating a CBD light rail extension to Circular Quay. Instead of finding support from the Lord Mayor and her team I watched as she used her team and her casting vote to kill my amendment.”
This comes on the back of the media coverage where the Lord Mayor was reported as saying: ‘Waiting - or worse, doing nothing - is simply not an option’. Here we have a Lord Mayor who on one hand proclaims to support light rail, yet when given the chance to really show her support she not only backs down but uses her casting vote to kill the opportunity altogether.” Cr. Harris said.
“The light rail extension has been estimated to cost $150M including the carriages. All the City has to do is put up one third of this - $50M - and convince the State and Federal governments to match our contribution. The City of Sydney is in a strong financial position with a forecast operating surplus of just under $120M in 2005/06. So if money isn’t the issue why did the Lord Mayor vote against a real opportunity to support light rail in the city?
“The Greens are very disappointed in the Lord Mayor’s failure to match her words with a genuine City of Sydney commitment to light rail. One has to wonder whether her constant media hype about light rail has any substance or is merely the empty gesture of a political stunt.” Cr Harris said.
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