Published in Green Left Weekly, 8 April 2017
Opponents of the $16.8bn WestConnex tollway project held a lively protest outside NSW Parliament on April 6 built around two demands: Not another cent for WestConnex; and No new tolls.
The rally was called by a broad coalition of local groups opposed to WestConnex and to the new tolls that will soon be imposed on the M4 to help pay for Stage 3 of this disastrous motorway project. It featured speakers from Labor, the Greens, the Clover Moore Team in Sydney City Council and Unions NSW.
Labor MP for Strathfield Jodi McKay called for "unity around what we can agree on", which she said included the two demands. Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong, a stalwart of the campaign against WestConnex, urged Labor to commit to "tearing up the contracts" for WestConnex should they become the next government of NSW.
Rally organiser Andrew Chuter from No WestConnex — Public Transport (NoWPT) told Green Left Weekly: "This rally busts open the NSW government's attempt to use divide and rule tactics to force through WestConnex.
"Commuters from the Western suburbs of Sydney are now furious at the prospect of being slugged with heavy new tolls to subsidise the profits of greedy corporations destroying large swathes of this city.
"New alliances are being forged that can stop WestConnex just like in Melbourne's East-West tunnel and Perth's Roe 8."
