The cost of Sydney properties acquired for the WestConnex motorway is set to easily exceed $1.5 billion, new figures show as the NSW government sustains criticism for its lack of response to a report outlining how to make the system fairer.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Last month finance minister Dominic Perrottet told a budget estimates hearing that 427 properties are marked for acquisition for the $16.8 billion project. Of these, 111 were yet to be acquired.
The properties include residential and commercial properties as well as those owned by councils and public authorities.
Figures obtained by the NSW opposition under access to government information laws show that at June 10, Roads and Maritime Services had spent $634 million on acquiring properties.
Of these 266 were acquired by negotiation and 49 compulsorily.
The figures show the expected cost of requiring the remaining properties by negotiation is $728 million. But RMS declined to give a dollar figure on remaining compulsory acquisitions as it is "dependent on the initial negotiation process".
An RMS spokeswoman said the 427 properties are "currently required to support the construction of all stages of the WestConnex project".
The 33-kilometre WestConnex is being constructed in three stages from the M4 motorway at Parramatta to Haberfield, Haberfield to St Peters and St Peters to Beverley Hills.
"The remaining maximum budget allocation also covers other costs associated with acquiring business and residential properties including relocation, temporary occupation, legal fees, court settlements and all other miscellaneous property costs," she said.
The NSW government has come under fire for the way homeowners are being treated by RMS during the property acquisition process, many of whom say they are being offered compensation well below market value.
They have failed to make public a landmark $100,000 review of the compulsory acquisition system by David Russell, SC, handed to government in February 2014.
Premier Mike Baird and Mr Perrottet have conceded the RMS approach "could have been better" and the process can be improved. They have promised to make the report public and respond to its recommendations in coming weeks.
Opposition roads spokeswoman Jodi McKay said it was "absolutely critical that [Mr Baird] release the report now before any more homes are acquired."
"We now know how much the Government spent in acquiring properties and yet for two-and-a-half years Premier Baird has been sitting on a report that could make the compulsory acquisition process fairer," she said.
"For Mr Baird to continue to shed crocodile tears for people whose homes are being compulsorily acquired while he has the solution is hypocrisy of the first order."
