The Canberra Liberals have announced stage 2B of light rail from the city centre to Woden won't go ahead if they win the 2024 ACT election.
The first stage of the project from the city to Gungahlin was a key issue in the 2012 and 2016 ACT election campaigns, with former opposition leader Jeremy Hanson even promising to tear up the government's contracts if the Canberra Liberals won.
But they didn't, and Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr declared his party's victory a mandate to proceed with the project.
Now, Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee is putting light rail back on the election agenda after "listening to the Canberra community".
"Canberra is a very different place to when stage one was proposed," she said.
"And I think stage two is a completely different landscape — figuratively and literally — and we know that there are many more challenges with stage two than with stage one.
"The economics just do not add up."
Ms Lee said she anticipated the project would cost over $3 billion — more than double initial expectations — and would have significant ongoing social costs for Canberrans.
"Canberrans deserve world-class health and education facilities, more support for teachers, nurses and police along with road upgrades all across Canberra," Ms Lee said.
"This Labor-Greens government has ripped millions out of hospitals, schools, public housing and policing to help pay for the tram.
"As a result, we have the longest emergency department wait times in the country, teachers at breaking point with schools being closed down due to violence, a housing crisis, and the lowest number of police per capita of any state and territory."
Ms Lee said her party now supported the first stage of the light rail and "wants to see it work".
And with construction of stage 2A from Alinga Street to Commonwealth Park already underway, Ms Lee said her party would also commit to seeing those works completed.
But she said that would be the end of the line, as she couldn't justify the cost of continuing the route south of the lake.
Ms Lee said her party would look to other viable transport options, including electric buses that offer "faster, cheaper, cleaner alternatives".
"It would have been the more politically easy thing to do to take it [light rail] off the table, but I'm not here to make politically easy decisions, I'm here to make sure I make decisions in the best interests of Canberrans," she said.
Government yet to confirm stage two cost
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr hit back at claims from the Canberra Liberals that the government was diverting money from healthcare and education to the light rail.
"The government has to be capable of managing multiple large projects simultaneously and investing in health, in education, in transport, in housing, in community services and in other key infrastructure projects, that's what an experienced and mature government does," he said.
"We will continue to work with the Australian government to roll out the next stages of the project, but at the same time we will also invest in new health infrastructure, new education infrastructure, new housing and new community infrastructure."
Mr Barr said Canberra was continuing to grow and if the government did not make these investments now, there would be "even more pain in the future".
"To rule out light rail – to do what has been done today – will severely limit our city's capacity to meet our future population growth, and it's unnecessary," he said.
"You can invest in a wide range of public transport infrastructure, and invest in health infrastructure, education infrastructure, and community service infrastructure. It's possible to do more than one thing at once, and that's what we intend to do."
The ACT government hasn't confirmed the costs or timeline for the project, citing the need to complete procurement processes.
But those predicted costs blew out to around $2 billion in 2020, and construction costs more generally have risen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting supply chain issues.
Following discussions with the territory government, the Commonwealth allocated an additional $85.9 million to the project in its October budget and withdrew the same amount from ACT road upgrade projects announced by the previous Coalition government.
Transport Minister Chris Steel defended the decision in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
"The Canberra Liberals don't support light rail. They never have and they never will," he said.
"This is just another failed attempt to jeopardise the project.
"The timing of stage 2A operations will be determined through the procurement process underway."
Mr Steel said he expected construction of stage 2A to take around two years, but did not want to confirm the timeline until procurement processes were finished so the government could give the public "certainty".
