Mike Baird may be gone, but his ‘war on trees’ continues.
We’ve received word that trees in Euston Road, between Sydney Park Road and Maddox Street, are to be removed, probably some time this coming week, perhaps even Monday.
There will be a rally at 4pm tomorrow (Sunday 26/3) at Sydney Park, near the Sydney Park Road/Euston Road intersection. Look for the WestConnex won’t work signs and the camp. More details here.
And, don’t forget tomorrow is Sunday Fun Day. Rain or shine.
There will be a rally at NSW Parliament, Thursday March 30
4:30pm to 6pm
Speakers include Jenny Leong, and others, TBA.
The recent federal audit of WestConnex has confirmed suspicions that taxpayers’ money is being misspent on this $17+ billion toll road.
NOT ANOTHER CENT!
$1.6 billion of the subsidised federal loan for WestConnex is yet to be paid. Come along to support the demand that this loan be stopped.
Can you imagine an extra 63,000 cars per day on McEvoy Street/Euston Road?
ARAG has invited a medical expert to describe the impact, and to answer residents’ questions:
Come to the next ARAG community meeting, and keep informed.
The Auditor General has found that the Commonwealth Government funded WestConnex, knowing that there had been no demonstration of benefits.
The decisions by both parties to provide significant support for the project were inconsistent with the advice produced by both Infrastructure Australia and DIRD. … DIRD’s advice consistently flagged that the project was in the very early stages of development and could not yet be recommended for Australian Government financial support.
The subsequent May 2014 decision to make the $500 million advance payment led to the project being approved without there being any documented analysis and advice to Ministers that the statutory criteria for giving such approvals had been met.
[W]ithout more detailed information [WestConnex] cannot be considered to have real potential when considered in the context of Infrastructure Australia’s reform and investment framework.
Further, when the project missed payment milestones, rather than corrective action being taken, the milestones were shifted to allow payments to be made anyway:
in order not to delay payments, milestones were agreed to after the respective event had already occurred or amended shortly before the payment was due to be made where New South Wales (NSW) had not met the milestone.
Although the focus of the audit was on the decision to advance money to the project, the audit did reveal that in less than two and a half years, WestConnex Stage 2 may have slipped by as much as 18 months:
DIRD’s April 2014 advice to Ministers indicated that … construction of Stage 2 could be completed by up to two years ahead of schedule.
On 11 May 2015, the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and the NSW Minister for Roads jointly announced the commencement of Stage 2 construction 18 months ahead of schedule…
On 16 September 2016, NSW had reported to DIRD that the Stage 2 main works were not expected to be complete until early 2020. This timing indicates that Stage 2 is less than six months ahead of the delivery schedule outlined in 2013.
[N]one of the 2016–17 milestones agreed in 2015 had been met…
The audit also revealed that expenditure has not always been accurately project managed:
The ANAO notes that reported expenditure information within IMS for WestConnex may be unreliable
reported expenditure for September 2016 was overstated by at least $319.4 million
initial reporting did not reflect the correct split between state and federal [funding]
Paul Fletcher, Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure, responded that the Auditor General had not criticised the benefits.
“Nothing in this report raises any questions about WestConnex’s design, the construction program, or the benefits that WestConnex will deliver to millions of people in western and southwestern Sydney…”
The Minister is being misleading. The Auditor General did not examine the benefits. It was not his job to do so. It was the job of the Federal Government and the State Government, and they did not do so.
But now that Paul Fletcher has brought up the issue of benefits, we call for the State Government to pause all further work on WestConnex while an inquiry can be held into the true cost benefit of the project.
The full ANAO report is here.
In no particular order, here are some of the links and other material discussed at last week’s meeting:
The Federal Auditor General’s Audit of WestConnex is due to be tabled this Tuesday, probably at around 2pm.
Once it is released, what should opponents or supporters of WestConnex be looking for?
The first thing to remember is that some things will be off limits. This is not a full audit of WestConnex.
The audit is of the Commonwealth’s decision to commit $3.5 billion in loans and grants to the project and the focus will be on the process by which that decision was made, including the information the decision relied on.
This is where things ought to get delicate for what is now the Berejiklian government, but also for the Federal Government.
If the Auditor General’s office have done their job properly, then we can expect them to identify the following issues, which are already known: Continue reading
This month’s meeting will be all about the widening of McEvoy St and Euston Road, and how this is all going to impact us.
Usual time and place:
7pm, Wednesday 8th February,
Alexandria Town Hall, Garden
For background information, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC363Gw7qig
A message from WestCONnex Action Group:
Today WestConnex contractors began destroying large numbers of trees in Sydney Park on the corner of Euston and Campbell Roads.
This is an urgent appeal to WestConnex Action Group members and supporters to join a mass demonstration at the Sydney Park Camp tomorrow morning from 6am to take a stand against the clear felling of large swathes of trees and the demolition of scores of homes in St Peters at Sydney Park and surrounds.
Your support so far during this campaign has been great and is appreciated. The Sydney Park protest camp has been in operation for 116 days now and this has been a huge community effort. We now need you tomorrow and throughout this week to stand up again against WestConnex.
Despite all the evidence showing that the plans by WestConnex for the St Peters Interchange and the New M5 will be a disaster, just like the M4 East has been, Duncan Gay and the Baird government have not listened.
Their road building frenzy knows no limits – more than 800 significant trees in and around the Inner West’s largest green space, Sydney Park, will be felled in the next few weeks as works begin to widen Euston and Campbell Roads to 7 and 8 lane highways.
Premier Baird and Roads Minister Duncan Gay definitely don’t have a social license for this project. We know tens of thousands of people all around Sydney do not support this wasteful road building which will feed the corporate tollroad companies for decades to come.
Join us tomorrow morning at 6am or as early as you can at the Sydney Park Camp on the corner of Euston and Campbell Roads to stand against Baird’s vandalism.
We know there’s a better way of doing transport in this city and we are prepared to fight WestConnex for as long as it takes to stop this dirty tollroad destroying our communities.
We need everyone to stand up and say NO tomorrow morning
TAKE ACTION
THURSDAY Jan 12 from 6AM (if you can’t make it at 6, please come down as early as you can)
Corner of Euston and Campbell Roads St Peters (entry via Campbell Road – walk or drive down Campbell Road from the Princes Highway)
WestCONnex Action Group
http://www.westconnexactiongroup.org.au/
On the agenda for tomorrow’s ARAG meeting (14/12/2016):
Our next meeting is this Wednesday, at the usual time and place of:
7pm at Alexandria Town Hall.
On the agenda:
Alexandria Residents' Action Group 