Tree inquiry knocked back

BY KRISTEN TSIAMIS

A parliamentary inquiry into the CBD and South Eastern Light Rail project did not get up after going to a vote on Thursday 22 September.

The inquiry came after several trees were unexpectedly felled on Alison Road in Randwick.

Since work on the project began, more than 100 trees have been destroyed.

The parliamentary inquiry was put forward by Greens member Mehreen Faruqi, and within four minutes, the motion was held over, thrown to a vote and knocked back, supported only by the Greens and Labor.

Greens NSW MP and Transport Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi said “it is very clear that the Government is scared of transparency, especially on the flawed roll out of the CSELR project. If this inquiry had been established, it could have called the Minister and the key decision makers in the project to testify and be accountable for their decisions. I think they would have had a hard time explaining the massive loss of trees, the budget blow outs and the unexplained changes of routes.”

Saving Sydney’s Trees were pivotal in the crusade in bringing the notion of a parliamentary inquiry to fruition.

Margaret Hogg, co-convenor of Saving Sydney’s Trees says that it took the removal of these trees, particularly the Anzac Figs “for people to start looking at everything” and that “they [residents] assumed the government was being completely above board and transparent.”

“The minister has said he’s put 140 trees already in Centennial Park, yet the project has taken more trees than that, the project has just begun, and there are hundreds more trees to go.”

Ms Hogg said that the community is devastated by the blatant lack of acknowledgement from authorities, saying that “every tree down High Street, our ‘Tree of Knowledge’, our Anzac trees – gone. This would never happen in other countries, it’s a disgrace.”

“I consider it an attack on the Australian psyche.”

It’s not only the trees that are suffering from the light rail, but will soon be residents, says John Bellamy, the convenor of the Sydney Light Rail Action Group.

“The light rail is cutting public transport in the morning peak by 60%, and with only 16 trams per hour the light rail is attempting to replace 220 buses. These 220 buses currently take 16,000 commuters per hour as opposed to the proposed 6,750 per hour.

Furthermore, the light rail will be “adding 20 minutes to the ride from Kingsford and as much as 7 minutes the other way. There is the capacity to add many more buses because they’re flexible, and they’ll have to do that to cope with the deficit. Additionally, the trams are cutting out two complete lanes of Anzac Parade.”

“We’ll never be able to put more tram services on in the first ten years – because of the times between the trams and the express buses. The environmental impact statement says that there won’t be increasing frequency of trams” he said.

Ms Hogg told City Hub that there has been a lack of prominence in planning strategy, resulting in the “pulling down of trees willy-nilly…it’s not good enough, something has to be done on the legislative side, which is why the parliamentary inquiry was so important.”

A lack of planning strategy is exactly what has been the root of the problem, said Mr Bellamy, as “the government has had the opportunity to finish the underground rail that runs from Bondi Junction to Kingsford, going though UNSW and Randwick.”

“It was put forward in the 70’s, and all the plans are still there, but it’s not yet come to fruition. I put it forward to the transport minister a year ago, but they refused to meet with me and said they were doing light rail and that’s it.”

Community pressure is paramount, and Dr Faruqi said it “must and will continue and we will use all means at our disposal to have some transparency on this multi-billion dollar project.”

Ms Hogg said that the group will “have to go into negotiations with the Greens and Labor and see what strategy we will now bring, there are other ways.”

The 691 trees that are to be killed and 717 trees that may die as a result of construction can be stopped. Mr Bellamy said it’s “never too late, it took 20 years to get rid of the Monorail, I’ll keep campaigning for better environmental and transport solutions.”