Transport and the Arts
Ms Cate Faehrmann:
I move:
(1)That Portfolio Committee No. 6 – Transport and the Arts inquire into and report on the impact of the Rozelle interchange, and in particular:
(a)the impact of the Rozelle interchange on traffic flow, including the prioritisation of traffic from toll roads including WestConnex over local traffic;
(b)the impact on the efficient and on-time running of buses, ferries and all other public transport;
(c)the social, environmental and economic impacts of the Rozelle Interchange project on impacted communities;
(d)the impact on foot traffic and active transport options, including due to the closure of Rozelle Parklands;
(e)the cause of asbestos detected in the Rozelle Parklands and the adequacy and appropriateness of the responses by government agencies and contractors to reports of asbestos in and near the Parklands;
(f)all solutions to ease the congestion and gridlock that the opening of the Rozelle interchange has created, including the impact of the Western Harbour Tunnel after opening;
(g)the adequacy of Transport for NSW planning, resource allocation and public communication in the period leading to and directly after the opening of the Rozelle interchange; and
(h)any other related matter.
(2)That the committee report by 20 June 2024.
This motion will establish the Portfolio Committee No. 6 – Transport and the Arts inquiry into the absolutely disastrous Rozelle interchange. As members have seen over the past couple of months, the opening of this interchange has been a complete disaster for commuters coming from many parts of Sydney, particularly inner west residents and those travelling over the Iron Cove and Gladesville bridges.
Ideally this should be a short, sharp inquiry—the reporting date is before the end of the financial year, which is important—because the community needs answers. Anyone talking about the impact of the interchange on them uses words like "disaster", "design flaw" and "fundamentally flawed". Of course, this inquiry needs to look at the impact on the local communities of Balmain and Rozelle, and the solutions. I note that neither the Government nor Transport for NSW has been able to put forward any substantial solutions that commuters can have faith will reduce the time it takes for people to get to work. It is absolutely unacceptable to hear that the impact of the opening of this interchange is something like an hour from bridge to bridge, and that local roads in Balmain, Rozelle and Lilyfield are so congested that buses are taking half an hour or longer to get to the main road.
As members know, upper House inquiries are able to call witnesses and experts, call for papers and documents and get to the bottom of a complete debacle such as this. Who made the decisions in the first place? Who in their right mind would think that reducing 10 lanes of traffic down to four and funnelling them all into the CBD would magically work and be this fantastic transport solution? How anybody could approve that design, I do not know. My hope is that the motion before the House is amended so that the inquiry is able to look into the design behind the Rozelle interchange and the traffic modelling that was undertaken, as my amendment sought to do. Without doing that, we are just going to offer up some solutions and not actually look at the fundamental issues of the design flaws. I hope an inquiry like this can lead to substantial solutions, not the tweaks we have seen and the roads Minister has talked about. Tweaks just put the problem elsewhere. I hope members support this motion.