It is unbelievable that the Minister for Transport doesn't know that there's
a problem with the motors in his trains.
The reason the Millennium trains are not in service is that they've got
AC motors.
When they were tested, they didn't react to the driver as they should
have.
So why would you allow any train to run with an AC motor in it.
The Tangara at Waterfall had an AC motor.
Carl Scully kept on saying there was no problem with the train, no problem
with the tracks.
Then the excuse is "My department told me".
Just like his department told him to steal from small businesses in the
hire car industry.
And licences that he sold before the Olympic Games for 145,000, you can
now get for $160 a week.
He couldn't remember that he'd promised to build a bridge at Epping West
Public School.
Well, there are other questions I wanted to ask Carl Scully yesterday,
but there was no point.
He simply would not know the answers.
But I've written to Carl Scully a thousand times about the M5 East tunnel.
Any tunnels if you like.
A Parliamentary inquiry last year came out with a third scathing report
on the M5 East and 12 recommendations.
It said the tunnel should be immediately filtered to protect motorists
and residents.
It presented evidence from world experts confirming that filters worked
and took out the very fine particles.
The Government and the RTA have done nothing, absolutely nothing about
that report, not one formal word.
So how can a Minister worth two bob go on ignoring these reports based
on evidence taken on oath which show that
-the RTA has been misleading the public
-Planning New South Wales hasn't done its job
-the EPA's and Health Department's hands are tied
-people are suffering
-a solution is possible but Mr Scully won't embrace it.
Now there's a health study under way, but it won't be completed until
after the election.
What are people meant to do in the meantime?
What has Mr Scully done to relieve the misery of residents who can't open
their windows, work in their gardens, or have had to move out because of
toxic fumes?
Talk about a property buyback is a sham, where people have to have their
house on the market for 12 months.
The chief atmospheric physicist from CSIRO, Dr Manins, said in evidence
about the conditions inside the M5 East tunnel "It is a most unhealthy place,
clearly, and people who actually work in that tunnel are at substantial
risk."
But the RTA still gives no advice or warning to people using the tunnel,
nor does Mr Scully.
Should people with asthma be advised not to use the tunnel?
The Health Department did a study in October/November last year about
in-tunnel conditions for drivers, but it won't be released until after the
elections.
Why.
The M5 East has cost more than 800 million dollars of taxpayers' money.
But Carl Scully doggedly refuses to admit there are serious problems inside
and outside the tunnel.
Why hasn't he called for expressions of interest from qualified filtration
experts who may be able to suggest a solution.
And how can you go ahead with two more unfiltered tunnels in the CBD and
Lane Cove.
How are you going to avoid the same mistakes?
There was an Upper House inquiry into the M5 East.
Mr Scully refused to answer most questions, taking them on notice even
though he'd taken the same questions on notice at the previous inquiry.
He set up a Department of Health study which will conveniently report
after the election.
He's consistently said and written that filtration doesn't work, and that
it doesn't remove small particulate matter.
But a professor from the Queensland University of Technology gave a written
submission to the Upper House inquiry that filtration using electrostatic
precipitators removes 90 per cent of fine and ultra-fine particles.
Mark Hather, the Director of Major Infrastructure Assessment in the New
South Wales Planning Department told the Upper House inquiry that a filter
would reduce particulates in the tunnel without question.
The Norwegian Hans Anderl, the manufacturer of tunnel filtration equipment
has estimated that the ventilation shaft for the cross-city tunnel will cost
50 to 70 million dollars more than the Norwegians have spent on filtration
for all of their tunnels put together.
These are matters that are Carl Scully's responsibility about which he's
done nothing.
Carl Scully's political career has ended, whether or not Bob Carr is returned
to Government.
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