Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I rise again to speak about the Mac Point Stadium, now that it has gone to be considered as a project of state significance. We have heard that impassioned discussion around football and why there is no need for a stadium, how disadvantaged the north‑west is from the member, Mr Garland. I completely agree. However, I suppose those priorities that this government has considered as the priorities versus the priorities that our community actually needs – there is a considerable gap in their thinking.
I talked earlier about the transport modal shift. About 60 per cent of people drive in greater Hobart and that is about the amount that the public transport would be considered for match days if we look at now the capacity on the roads and what would be required because that modal shift is going to be very difficult. As I discussed earlier, the capacity on our roads currently is considerably limited, particularly if you think about traffic coming into a stadium at a particular time for a particular event. There are concerns about the knock-on effects for not only the community, because there will be this emphasis as we have discussed, about funding the stadium and things about the stadium, but it is also the knock-on impacts on the City of Hobart.
Quite often, when we look at what is proposed in the project of state significance papers submitted, there are considerable requirements of what would be desirable. If you take active transport, there is a proposed active transport corridor and a proposed bridge from Collins Street to the stadium area, but that is not funded. There is a large area, if you look at where bikes come into Mac Point now, where the bike riders will actually have to dismount and will not be able to ride in that area. If you are commuting through into the city, then you would not be able to use that route. Bike parking is another consideration that needs to be undertaken.
We see also in the papers that there is the capacity for ferry transport, but presently it is a very small number of the overall percentage. A lot of work needs to be done. There is a considerable amount of expense to put in. The bus rapid transport is looking at an estimated cost of $445 million. All of these things would be nice to have for the city, but we are not necessarily going to see that anytime soon.
Of the projects identified that are needed for the transport plan to be successful, four are considered essential and three of these are unfunded. Seven are considered high priority and four of these are unfunded. Total cost of unfunded essential and high priority travel needs is $44 million. The Greens look forward to budget estimates to ask more questions about this as a project, as well the priorities that this government is making.
