Unlike the opera, the Phantom of the Assembly is described as a bit thin and flat.
Labor’s “Aquatic Strategy” promises that “options to deliver a new public 50-metre outdoor pool in Woden will be progressed”. But progressing options differs from a commitment, says BEATRICE BODART-BAILEY.
Who would have thought that a phantom would be discovered in our Assembly?
Prof Beatrice Bodart-Bailey.
Since the Assembly’s stars somewhat lack the charisma and energy of those of the opera, the Assembly’s phantom is, accordingly, described as a bit thin and flat.
However, we hear it has had close encounters and is claimed to have been inspected by at least one minister and a number of senior bureaucrats.
Since the function of our local government relies on the electorate’s trust in the well-prepared utterances of our politicians, who would have imagined that what apparently had been reliably sighted was a mere phantom, though one so attractive that it beguiled even the minister.
It required the auditor-general and one of our trustworthy independents to point out that the sightings of a rigorous analysis of future community needs permitting changes for the requirements of a site were mere fictions of the imagination. Or were they one of the increasing AI hallucinations?
Pity though that our bureaucrats are apparently not trained to discover them. Or did someone discover that the touted report was a mere phantom, but was afraid to act as whistleblower since it might upset the minister’s plans to have the present 50-metre pool replaced by one half its size?
As it turned out, the minister’s plans were totally unacceptable to the electorate, even though he promised to have the other half of the pool built elsewhere.
Yet it must be appreciated that the chief minister is somewhat in a bind, because the half-sized pool is part of a project providing more shoebox accommodation piled up high, producing a large amount of rates on a relatively small strip of land and thus, together with the developer, occupies a special place in the heart of our government.
Unfortunately, the discovery that the frequently cited report is non-existent, changed little with regard to keeping the 50-metre pool.
Within its new “Aquatic Strategy”, the government states that what “will continue to support the local community” will be “the planned 25-metre public pool and splash play areas as part of the future private development in the Woden Town Centre”.
As to the present pool, we learn that “options to deliver a new public 50-metre outdoor pool in Woden will be progressed.”
Progressing options differs from a commitment. Moreover, since “Woden” refers either to the town centre or the Woden Valley comprising 12 suburbs, the chances that a 50-metre outdoor pool will be built anywhere near the soon-to-be-demolished one are slim. Hopefully, the intervention of the ACT Integrity Commissioner will make a difference.
Unfortunately, opaque decision-making seems to be a hallmark of our local government. When it affects generations to come, such as the investment in a public transport system, it is unacceptable.
The decision to invest in a costly Light Rail Transit (LRT) system rather than incorporate the existing buses in a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system (with roughly twice the benefit-cost-ratio) was taken at a time when the advanced technology of electric buses made LRT with its tracks and overhead wiring redundant.
In 2010, the Chinese company BYD rolled out its BYD K9, a new type of electric bus that, with its 250-km range lithium batteries, was so successful that it was soon produced in the US.
Yet a 2012 Canberra comparison of LRT and BRT studiously ignored the new technology while it was being trialled worldwide.
Sydney Airport began a trial of the BYD electric bus in partnership with the Australian company Carbridge in 2014. In 2016, when Canberra signed the agreement with the present Metro operator for a package including a tram shipped from Spain (which, unfortunately, cannot climb Canberra’s hills) Sydney Airport began using the BYD “Electric Blu” buses for its seven-kilometre shuttle. The year the 12-kilometre Canberra Metro between Gungahlin and Civic was inaugurated, BYD buses joined the NSW transit network operating on four lines.
What could have been the reason for Canberra’s failure to consider the latest technology when deciding on a transport network shaping the city for generations to come?
Especially as LRT is not climate-change resilient, the extension to Woden will take nearly twice as long as any bus and destroy the unique bush atmosphere around Parliament House.
Moreover, absurdly it is claimed that LRT is a “green” policy while producing large amounts of CO2 as the infrastructure is being built and carriages are shipped from the other end of the world.
Equally absurd is the argument that buses would be unable to carry the expected increase in passengers when Brisbane, with a population six times that of Canberra, chose Metro buses, indistinguishable in comfort and looks (excepting overhead wires and rails) from the tram.
Cui bono – who stands to benefit? The former chief minister Jon Stanhope and his senior treasury official Dr Khalid Ahmed have questioned under this masthead discussing the LRT extension. Could the auditor-general and the integrity commissioner in this case also search for an answer?
Historian Beatrice Bodart-Bailey is an honorary professor at the ANU School of Culture, History and Language and an emeritus professor of the Department of Comparative Culture, Otsuma Women’s University, Tokyo.
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