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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3027 ..

Mr De Domenico: All local shopping centres, not just Kippax.

MS HORODNY: That is exactly right. Kippax in particular has suffered greatly in recent years. It has had cutbacks to the health centre, which may indeed close entirely. The library service has not been improved as it should have been. They are losing a bank at Kippax, and they are also suffering from a general decline in the quality of the public space. Further cutbacks in public transport access to Kippax will be just another nail in the coffin.

I have circulated an amendment to Mr De Domenico's amendment which would omit the words "are not out of proportion with services to other group centres" because I do not think it is appropriate to put all group centres into the one bag. As I was saying to Mr De Domenico earlier, some group centres such as Jamison or Dickson have a lot more bus services going past because they are closer to the town centres. We have to try to improve the services that go to centres like Kippax. Kippax is out of the way and regular bus services do not go past it, but it is an important centre for people who live around that area. People need to be able to access that centre. Again, it is a downward spiral. We know that Kippax is not doing very well as a group centre. We know that they need all the help that they can get in terms of improved services in that area. Yet Mr De Domenico is proposing that other group centres have their services cut to the level that the Kippax group centre is being cut to.

The document on the review of Belconnen services says that the major disincentive to travelling on ACTION services is the high travelling time as a result of indirect bus routes. The ACTION review group really needs to look at the whole book. It is full of looped services. Looped services do not reduce travelling time; they increase travelling time. It is not about direct bus routes; it is about indirect bus routes. My mother calls the new bus services tourist drives. That is what they are. You go through five other suburbs before you get to the one where you want to get off. That is fine when you are close to the end of the route and you are close to your destination, but on the way back you have to go through several suburbs to get to the stop that you want to get to.

MR SPEAKER: Ms Horodny, would you mind moving your amendment, before you sit down.

MS HORODNY: I move the following amendment to Mr De Domenico's amendment:

Omit "are not out of proportion with services to other group centres", substitute "and other group centres are improved".

MR MOORE (11.48): Mr Speaker, I will speak to the whole range of issues at the one time. It seems to me that, whilst it is appropriate for Mr Berry to call for a review of bus services where there has been a problem - I do not have any problem about that - there are problems in effectively finding ways to dictate to the Government what they should do about one particular bus route. I raise that because it is like a jigsaw puzzle. The Bus Book is put together with a whole range of different things that are linked into how bus services are delivered. It seems to me that we therefore have to be very careful about the wording of such motions.

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