Inquiry Established into Sydenham-Bankstown Rail Line Conversion

Today the Transport and Customer Service Committee of the NSW Legislative Council agreed to begin an inquiry into the Government’s proposal to convert the Sydenham-Bankstown heavy rail line to a metro line.
The committee will issue a report by 31 March 2020.

Greens Transport spokesperson and chair of the Transport and Customer Service Committee, Abigail Boyd MP said:

“There has been no community consultation regarding the proposed conversion of the publicly owned T3 Bankstown line to a privately operated metro.

“Given the issues plaguing the first stage of the North West Metro it is time for Parliament to seriously review the Government’s transport agenda for south-west Sydney.

“Residents are rightly concerned that the proposed conversion amounts to nothing more than a sell-off of their existing heavy rail service.

“If the conversion goes ahead commuters travelling into the Sydney CBD from west of Bankstown will be forced to make up to three mode changes whereas they currently have a direct service.

“That doesn’t sound like money well spent to the Greens - and that’s exactly why we’ve pushed for this inquiry.
“Sydney needs world class public transport that gets you where you need to go, when you need to get there. Not potentially redundant projects being undertaken for the sole benefit of developers and big corporates.

“In addition to investigating the suitability of a privately-operated metro line, the inquiry will also investigate how the Government will conduct temporary transport arrangements during construction.

“If the Government is going to push ahead with this conversion, the least they can do is ensure disruption is minimised for the community, especially for commuters with disability,” said Ms Boyd.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

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Inquiry Established into Sydenham-Bankstown Rail Line Conversion

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

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