Iemma to make sweeping changes to PPPs: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Ean Higgins, John Stapleton. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 08 Dec 2005: 4.
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Abstract
NSW Premier Morris Iemma will today announce sweeping changes to the way the state deals with public-private partnerships, especially toll roads.
In another day of high drama, Mr Iemma called for a reduction in the $3.56 one-way toll. However tunnel chief Peter Sansom said not only would there be no reduction in the toll, but that his company would sue if the Government tried to undo road closures forcing cars into the tunnel.
Mr Debnam said the Government and the tunnel operators must come clean on what roads they would allow to be reopened, and reverse the effective sell-off of public roads. “The NSW Premier needs to explain to the public why they have stubbornly refused to reopen roads when their own legal advice shows they could do so without penalty,” he said.
Full Text
NSW Premier Morris Iemma will today announce sweeping changes to the way the state deals with public-private partnerships, especially toll roads.
In an attempt to draw a line under the politically damaging controversy over tolled tunnels, which is threatening Labor’s chances of re-election in 2007, Mr Iemma will say that future motorway projects that involve the private sector will require a much higher degree of transparency and state control.
The state Government will in future retain a greater say over setting the tolls and the closure or restriction of competing roads.
The announcement is based on a study by bureaucrat David Richmond, which Mr Iemma commissioned in late October.
It will be aimed at differentiating his administration from that of his predecessor, Bob Carr, under whose watch controversial private projects such as Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel and Lane Cove Tunnel were commissioned.
The Cross City Tunnel in particular has been a major embarrassment to the Government, attracting hostility with its high price and the closure of surface roads to force people to use it.
In another day of high drama, Mr Iemma called for a reduction in the $3.56 one-way toll. However tunnel chief Peter Sansom said not only would there be no reduction in the toll, but that his company would sue if the Government tried to undo road closures forcing cars into the tunnel.
Mr Sansom called a press conference to announce the reversal of statements he had made under oath to a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday, when he said the company would not sue for compensation if roads in the up-market suburbs of Paddington and Woollahra were restored to normal.
“It is extremely legally complex. We are not dropping the toll and we are not changing the roads. We have a contract with theGovernment,” he said yesterday.
The Opposition produced advice from law firm Clayton Utz to the Government about the contract, which showed more than 50 of the72 public roads shut, narrowed or altered could be returned to their original function without triggering compensation claims by theproject owners.
Mr Debnam said the Government and the tunnel operators must come clean on what roads they would allow to be reopened, and reverse the effective sell-off of public roads. “The NSW Premier needs to explain to the public why they have stubbornly refused to reopen roads when their own legal advice shows they could do so without penalty,” he said.
Meanwhile, at the inquiry into the tunnel, former premier Nick Greiner rejected a suggestion from Greens MP Lee Rhiannon that construction firm Baulderstone Hornibrook, with which he is associated, had won the contract to build the tunnel because it contributed $100,073 in recent years to the NSW ALP.