Canberra Liberals call for light rail plans to be dumped in wake of budget cuts

The Canberra Liberals are calling on the ACT Government to abandon its plan to build light rail in the wake of federal budget cuts.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher expects the budget will slash $240 million in health funding from the ACT over the next four years.

Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson disagrees with those figures but admits Canberra is in for some lean fiscal times.

He says plans to build a $614 million light rail network between Gungahlin and Civic should be dumped.

"Now is not the time to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a tram track between the city and Gungahlin that we simply cannot afford, that this city does not need and for the vast bulk of Canberrans are going to miss out on," he said.

"Ultimately they still don't know how they're going to pay for this, and they still can't tell us how much it will cost to operate."

Mr Hanson says light rail is not a great way to create employment and Ms Gallagher needs to rethink her priorities.

"The case has not been made for light rail and I will be putting our nurses, teachers, children and surgery patients as my number one priority and Katy Gallagher should do the same," he said.

"Any cuts to health or education that she imposes on Canberrans while concurrently spending hundreds of millions of dollars on light rail would be a failure in her duty to the people of Canberra."

But Ms Gallagher says the project will create jobs and boost economic activity at a time when it is most needed.

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Canberra Liberals call for light rail plans to be dumped in wake of budget cuts

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