Page 3562 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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last budget speech seven months ago, where I thanked the hardworking staff of TCCS and the public service for their handling of COVID-19. Since then they have continued to go above and beyond. I would like to thank all those staff for their tireless commitment to the work that keeps our city moving, literally. Please look after yourselves. I know everyone is really tired. You have done a really good job and I hope most of you are anticipating a good break over Christmas.
I was pleased to see in this budget that money has been allocated for a number of projects essential to making sure Canberra’s public transport network expands for our growing population. It is so important that we expand that fleet and expand our staff as our city grows so that we are delivering a good level of service to our new suburbs, without the need to cut services in our existing suburbs.
Those in existing suburbs grow to rely on their local bus service. If that network gets spread thinner by every new suburb then we risk losing existing public transport users because their level of service has dropped. This is why I was so pleased to see residents of Whitlam, just south of Belconnen, being provided with a bus service as part of this budget. It is great to see bus services running as soon as possible when people move into a new suburb. Habits are formed at the start, and it is important that residents do not feel they need to rely on private motor vehicles to get around our city. I asked Minister Steel about the provision of buses to Whitlam back in February, and I am delighted to see this funded in the budget.
There is also money allocated for planning for a north side bus depot and for completing the long-awaited Woden bus depot. These cannot come soon enough. The new depots are essential for increasing the size of our fleet. Importantly, they will also enable our transition to a 100 per cent zero emissions bus fleet, in line with our commitment to addressing the climate crisis. With 60 per cent of scope 1 and scope 2 emissions coming from transport, a high quality network of zero emissions light rail and buses is important. I look forward to seeing these projects progress as soon as possible.
Continuation of flexible bus services is a big win for the community. It is a good service, but not many people are aware of it. I would like to see more people made aware. I have spoken to a lot of eligible residents who could have gained a benefit from it but did not know it existed. I am hopeful we can continue investigating new solutions for how we can better serve our community and promote this service, and how we can help those who are too far away from their closest bus stop or who otherwise have difficulty accessing public transport.
I would also like to see more done to encourage and expand public transport in the ACT, including providing all suburbs with hourly weekend buses so people can rely on the network when they need to use it, and not just in peak hour. A lot of Canberrans have spoken to me about this. If a bus on the weekend comes once every two hours, most people will not catch it, because it is simply too infrequent to get them to the time and place they want to go. That means they are either stuck at home or they will go back to using their car.
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