[Greens-Media] Greens reveal hidden cost of Westlink

[Colleen.Hartland at parliament.vic.gov.au]

"The figures speak for themselves, public money is better spent on public 
transport", said Colleen Hartland MLC pointing to figures in a 
confidential submission obtained by the Greens under Freedom of 
Information.

 "More trains, and less roads and tunnels is the way of the future for 
Melbourne and the Western Region." 

"The government’s own studies reveal that every $3 spent on roads will 
return only around $1. This is based on figures analysed before the cost 
of the West Gate Freeway blew out from $3.5 to $5billion."

"How much more will the Westlink budget blow out? Roads create pollution 
and offer no encouragement for people to walk to bus stops and train 
stations. This begs me to also ask, what are the health costs for the 
West?"

"The government is simply out of touch with the people of Victoria and 
outdated in its approach. The uptake on roads projects is far less than 
the government thought, the Eastlink is attracting 40 percent less cars 
than expected", said Colleen Hartland.

"With car use going down and the cost of living going up we need 
accessible and affordable public transport, and we need it now",

"Why do we need another costly road that simply makes getting around even 
more expensive for people in the West due to petrol costs and road tolls?"

"It's a tax on where you live."

"The people in the Western suburbs need long term clean public transport 
solutions, not congested car-park corridors. The government doesn't want 
people to know that their plans are flawed and have tried to keep it to 
themselves. Greg Barber, Greens MLC has fought for a year to get this 
information to the public where it belongs. After all it is community 
money being spent."

"The Federal Government can’t support Westlink, nor can private investors. 
The people speaking to me in the West are against it. They don't want to 
be forced to rely on the heavy costs of private car use, or for their 
communities to be sliced into portions between tunnels and freeways."

"The fact that the government wants to go it alone just shows how arrogant 
they can be."




Gabriel Aleksandrs
Electorate Officer 
The office of Colleen Hartland MLC
PO Box 318
Seddon West VIC 3011
Ph: 9689 6373
Fax: 9689 6227
URL: http://mps.vic.greens.org.au/ 


///////************************************************************///////////////

Parliament of Victoria                                                                                                                    . 
Important Disclaimer Notice:


The information contained in this email  including any attachments, may be 
confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please 
notify the sender and delete it from  your system. Any unauthorised 
disclosure, copying or dissemination of all or part of this email, including 
any attachments, is not permitted. This email, including any attachments, should 
be dealt with in accordance with copyright and  privacy legislation. 
Except where otherwise stated, views expressed are those of the individual sender.