Road Tolls
Ms Cate Faehrmann: As The Greens spokesperson on roads I support the motion. The Coalition has a shameful record of sell-offs and privatisation of public works. As we all know, Sydney's tolling regime has reached outrageous levels, making our city one of the most heavily tolled in the world. Western Sydney residents in particular bear much of the brunt of cost-of-living pressures like road tolls. This is not a record that any government should be proud of. The underhand tactics employed by the Coalition involved signing secret contracts with private operators, largely Transurban, locking motorists into a decades-long schedule of toll increases, restricting the ability to make travel around this city more efficient, affordable and accessible, and driving revenue and profit from the public to Transurban.
The independent toll review by Professor Allan Fels and Dr David Cousins released this week shows that motorists are predicted to pay $195 billion in tolls by 2060, with more than half this figure coming from tolls from the WestConnex network. WestConnex was promised by the former Government as a way of reducing traffic congestion and cutting driving times from the western suburbs to the CBD and the airport. The people of Western Sydney are already suffering from an appalling lack of public transport services and are then made to pay for the privilege of WestConnex because they have no choice but to use those toll roads. We are learning from the transient road use that motorists are avoiding these toll roads and instead opting for congested, untolled roads because the tolls for accessing motorways like WestConnex are simply too high.
In signalling my support for the motion, it is important not to forget that Labor also has a shameful record of entering into public-private partnerships to build motorways and then slugging drivers for them over many decades. Before 2011 Labor also entered into a number of secretive contracts with Transurban, including the Eastern Distributor, the Cross City Tunnel, the Westlink M7 motorway, the Lane Cove Tunnel and the widening at the beginning of the WestConnex M4. These toll roads are operated by private companies under long-term concession agreements—all highly secretive—with both this Government and the former Government.
While something had to be done to alleviate the cost-of-living pressures being faced by families across Sydney, let us remember that a $60 weekly toll cap is just a massive transfer of public money to Transurban. Frankly, if Labor had been in government for the 12 years the Coalition was, I doubt there would be any fewer tollways in this State. I reckon it would have done pretty much the same thing because the same companies, the same vested interests, were recommending to both governments to build these tollways and the governments, the public service and the Ministers have bent over backwards and done it. The Greens support the motion, but Labor cannot pretend to be the saviour of Sydney when it comes to tolls because it was just as bad.
Full text of the motion:
Hon. Dr. Sarah Kaine moved:
That this House:
(a) condemns the previous Liberal-Nationals Government's obsession with privatisation and sell-offs that made Sydney the most tolled city in the world;
(b) notes that the previous Government signed secret contracts locking motorists into at least 4 per cent yearly toll increases, with all proceeds going to the private operator; and
(c) supports the $60 weekly toll cap to help families tackle the rising cost of living. I note that the motion was added to theNotice Paper over a month before the release of the Independent Toll Review Interim Report, but much of the discussion in the report released this week is directly relevant. In particular, the interim report notes that tolls are too expensive and that toll increases are locked in for decades without options for review. In the case of WestConnex, those increases are at a minimum of 4 per cent, or the CPI if that is greater. I remind members that the WestConnex includes the M4, the M5 East, the M8 and the M4-M8 link and Rozelle interchange—the largest chunk of our tolling system.