EVEN if they never catch the Civic to Gungahlin tram, Canberra's taxpayers could still end up paying more than $4400 each for the project, the Canberra Liberals have warned.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In an escalation of their rhetoric against the Capital Metro light rail project, the opposition has claimed that taxpayers who live outside the area served by trams will take on a disproportionately large share of the construction costs.
But the government has hit back, saying the Capital Metro could be extended, over time, to serve more of the city.
Based on the early estimate that stage one of the Capital Metro would cost $614 million, the opposition has calculated that taxpayers would contribute about $4418 each towards the project.
If the bill was split evenly between households, residents of Gungahlin would find themselves paying $77.4 million, those from the inner north $52.3 million, Woden $38.7 million, Weston Creek $42.4 million, the inner south $52.3 million, Tuggeranong $144.8 million and residents of Belconnen $163.2 million.
Deputy Liberal leader Alistair Coe said the cost made it hard to justify building a light rail system that would benefit only a segment of the population.
''The scale of this capital works project, of course, is targeted heavily at a segment of the ACT population,'' Mr Coe said.
''And it's a balancing act as to whether the ACT budget can afford $600 million worth of capital expenditure for anything, let alone a segment of the ACT population.''
Mr Coe said light rail should not be compared with road projects that only benefited particular parts of the community because it would cost far more than building roads.
Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said people from all over Canberra supported the construction of a light rail network.
''As a government, we fund infrastructure right across the community and specific bits of the community benefit from it and other bits of the community less so,'' Mr Rattenbury said.
''But, overall as a community, we work together to build the things that we need.''
Mr Rattenbury said a master-planning process would help determine which parts of Canberra would receive light rail next.
Tuggeranong Community Council president Nick Tsoulias said that if a light rail system was constructed in Canberra there would be support for it to be extended to Tuggeranong.
But Mr Tsoulias said it would be unrealistic for a large-scale light rail system to be built without federal funding.
''If we're going to be real about light rail, we really need to get the federal government behind it,'' he said.
Mr Tsoulias said the prioritisation of light rail in future budgets should not be used as an excuse to under-invest in roads and public transport for other parts of the ACT.