LIGHT IN THE TUNNEL
This election campaign’s light rail fight is not the first time our trams have been at the centre of a political battle
THE future of the light rail’s southern extension will become clearer once the dust settles on this weekend’s federal election.
The $2.7bn Burleigh-to-airport tram extension has been hanging in the balance after Mcpherson MP Karen Andrews told her own government to reject funding the proposal to run along the Gold Coast Highway through Palm Beach.
Her stance outraged both the state government and Gold Coast City Council.
The move was an 11th-hour twist in the election campaign.
However, it is not the first time the project has been a major political football leading up to a poll.
July marks 25 years since then-mayor Gary Baildon and then-council transport boss Ken Deutscher unveiled the original plan to build light rail. In this instance, they were $450m stateof-the-art “supertrams” said to be capable of 100km/h. The target date was 2001.
The proposal, along with a ferry system, formed part of a long-term transport masterplan developed by the council to “establish the Gold Coast as a world leader in transportation”.
Fast foward to 2001 and the lead-up to that year’s federal election when funding for a study into the light rail became a major issue for voters.
Mr Howard, the Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007, is remembered today as a political titan but in 2001 he was behind in the polls and facing defeat.
In March, Cr Baildon, in the early days of his third and final term as mayor, flew to Canberra and met Mr Howard to try and get $65m to fund the light rail.
The meeting was held in the Prime Minister’s office in Parliament House.
“I went down there, was shown to his office and we met but I found he was not welcoming or friendly towards me at all,” Cr Baildon told the Bulletin in 2017.
“Howard bounced me around the office and told me that his government did not fund transport infrastructure.
“He said a few things, so did I and I managed to keep my calm, which I normally do and I reminded Howard that I represented a city of more than 500,000 people.
“It was disappointing for me because I felt we undoubtedly had a strong case.”
Mr Baildon’s 35-minute meeting with Mr Howard made the Bulletin’s front page on March 7, 2001. The Howard government eventually changed its tune, matching the state’s funds to allow for a $1.3m feasibility study in 2002.
By 2007 the Howard government was on its last legs and Labor’s Kevin Rudd was on his way to The Lodge.
In a key moment of that year’s campaign, Mr Rudd flew into the Gold Coast and backed the light rail system.
When asked if he wanted the trams extended to Coolangatta, Mr Rudd told the Bulletin he wanted to establish what funding and infrastructure requirements the southern area of the city needed.
Mr Rudd took aim at incumbent Liberal MP Margaret May, accusing her of doing nothing to address major transport infrastructure issues on the Gold Coast, despite being in federal Parliament since 1998.
“This region suffers from transport bottlenecks and yet there are absolutely no practical solutions being delivered
by the Howard government.
“What have they done here for the last 11 years? What have they delivered to this region?
“The Liberal Party has taken the Gold Coast for granted for far too long. It shows that the Liberals have lost touch with the Gold Coast.”
Mr Rudd went on to win the November 2007 poll.
The Rudd government committed federal funding to Stage 1 of the trams in the 2009 federal budget.
The trams played no significant role in the 2010, 2013 or 2016 elections after effectively gaining bipartisan support on a
state and federal level, as well as the continued backing of the council.
But they made a big return in the lead up to the last election.
In late 2018, the Bulletin revealed the federal and state governments were negotiating to fund Stage 3, running between Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads. Federal Labor had also committed to the funding before unexpectedly losing that year’s poll.
Now the funding détente has come to an end as the Gold Coast waits to see what will happen next.