By Lisa Macdonald
SYDNEY — More than 400 people attended a rally outside Parliament House here on May 23 calling for a halt to the privately owned and operated M2 tollway development, which threatens to lock nearly 300 square kilometres of Sydney's north-west into half a century of car domination.
The rally, the largest action in almost eight years of campaigning against the M2, follows over six months of blockades by protesters at the site of the development. These direct actions have resulted in 99 arrests to date and have delayed construction work, which is now running three months behind schedule. They are organised by the Freeway Busters alliance, involving local residents, students, academics, conservation groups and transport activists.
The new state Labor government, despite expressing opposition to the M2 development in before the March 25 state election, announced on April 13 that it will not pass special legislation to overturn the contract for the freeway, signed with the Hills Motorway consortium by the previous Liberal government shortly before the election.
The Carr government's excuse for inaction is the supposed requirement to pay compensation to the consortium if the contract is cancelled, an amount it describes as an "intolerable financial burden for the people of NSW". Less publicly, government ministers have also argued that cancellation would "send the wrong message to business" about investing in NSW.
The argument that the contract cannot be cancelled has no basis. The project deed has specific provision for cancellation of the contract, and advice to the auditor-general was that parliament could overturn the contract, with or without compensation. There are a number of precedents for this, including the Greiner government's cancellation of the construction of the Maldon-Dombarton railway in June 1988.
Furthermore, legal advice received by the Coalition of Transport Action Groups last week is that "there are reasonable grounds for concluding that there have been and continue to be serious contraventions of the Trade Practices Act and the Corporations Law in the issue of the M2 Prospectus".
In addition to the obvious social and environmental costs of this development, and the compulsory resumption and destruction of some 250 homes in the area, cancellation of the contract could also save NSW taxpayers from financial disaster, even if compensation was paid.
The freeway and ancillary road works will suck $1.5 billion away from investment in public transport services. Moreover, an analysis of the M2, prepared by financial consultant Richard Tanner, concludes that the motorway operators will experience major revenue shortfalls and therefore be unable either to pay the rent for land in the motorway corridor or to repay large loans from the government for construction costs.
The activists protesting the development are not alone in their condemnation of the M2. As early as 1990, the Woodward Commission, after eight months of hearings, found that there was no case for the freeway "on economic, social or environmental grounds".
According to an article in the May edition of Hell on Wheels, sponsored by the M2 blockade, the tollway will have the following impacts:
1. "It will worsen traffic congestion, not clear it. It is now generally admitted by traffic authorities around the world that building or widening roads where there is traffic congestion or where travel speeds will be increased, simply generates extra traffic. This is known as the 'induced traffic effect' ...
"A 1990 study commissioned by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) titled Road Transport: Future Directions made disturbing predictions about Sydney's future if the RTA's freeway building drive continued. The study estimated that traffic congestion would jump by 600%, air quality would decline by 36%, fuel consumption would increase by 23% and accident costs would rise by 68%."
2. "Induced traffic will worsen noise and air pollution. The M2 would have immediate effects across Sydney's north-west as extra traffic generated by the motorway flooded onto the existing road network.
"Asthma and other pollution related illnesses will increase and there will be more deaths from deadly ... particles emitted by vehicles."
3. "Ancillary road works will swallow up $1 billion of public money. The contract guarantees the consortium that the RTA will ensure free-flowing traffic on roads serving the M2. This will mean ancillary road works, constructed at public expense, on at least 10 major roads in the area which would more than triple the estimated motorway costs of $369 million."
4. "Public transport links to the north-west are effectively ruled out for 45 years by the contract. The M2 contract makes the government liable to pay compensation to the consortium if it wants to develop any public transport links at any time in the next 45 years.
"The RTA defends this decision by referring to the M2's busway. This is a sham. The M2 consortium is reported to be already negotiating with the RTA to turn the busway into extra car lanes. Construction of the busway appears to be at a public cost (estimated at $110 million), a figure not included in the admitted government input of $170 million."
5. "The tollway would trigger off another round of destructive urban sprawl. If the M2 is pushed through, the consortium, the banks and real estate interests will generate inexorable political pressure for more new subdivisions. Thousands more hectares of roads, pavements and roofs will pump more toxic run-off into the Hawkesbury River."
6. "The M2 would destroy some of Sydney's most precious urban bushland and worsen water quality. The M2 will carve a brutal swathe through the Lane Cove Valley. All the spilled oil and petroleum, and the rubber and heavy metal pollutants, will go straight into the Lane Cove River and Sydney harbour. The same applies to toxic pollutant spills on the motorway because available technology for filtering pollutants out of motorway run-off is negligibly effective."
MLCs Ian Cohen from the Greens and Richard Jones from the Democrats moved last week to set up a Legislative Council Select Committee to examine the M2.
Greenpeace campaigner Robbie Kelman lists the alternatives to the tollway development in Hell on Wheels. He states, "The State Rail Authority has on its drawing boards surveys for a rail line running [through the area]. A private firm has also proposed a Macquarie link to run from Epping to Chatswood (predominantly underground) via Macquarie University."
Pointing to surveys which show majority public support for extending public transport networks in Sydney, Kelman argues that the government should immediately enter into negotiations with the consortium to change the contract project from the building of a motorway to the construction of a government assisted, privately funded rail link.
In the meantime, anti-M2 activists are committed to continuing to build the campaign using letter writing, direct action blockades and city-based rallies.
For more information about the campaign contact Freeway Busters on (02) 850 7629 or c/ Students Council, Macquarie University, NSW 2109.