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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4126 ..

MS REILLY (2.46 am): The last sentence of the Government's response to the Select Committee on Estimates reads:

In the Weston Creek area, improved frequency has been provided on one of the central routes.

The question you have to ask is: Do not people in Weston Creek pay their rates and taxes? I understand that they do. Why can they not have a decent bus service? There has been a reduction in 21 per cent of services in Weston Creek. What have we done wrong that we are not allowed to have a decent bus service? There was a very peculiar consultation process in which most people did not receive the material they needed to know that the consultation was going on. The decision had been made before the consultation was held.

Mr De Domenico: No, it had not. It has not been made yet. It is a 1997 network.

MS REILLY: I have raised queries and I have been told they are not important. It is not important that buses go past schools at a reasonable time to pick up primary school children! It is amazing that you can say that the service has been increased on one of the central routes. It is probably the only route left in Weston Creek. It would be appreciated, when you are doing the next consultation on the leftover bus route that you have to cut, if you let everybody in Weston Creek know about it.

It is sad to see the loss of bus services throughout this town, with the excuse that there is no patronage. If there are no buses you cannot patronise them and, if you keep taking off the routes that people use, it is very hard to continue to patronise them. We are talking in some cases about people who have used the bus services for years, but who are leaving them because they cannot use them to get to work, to get to doctors' appointments or to do anything else. This is particularly important for young people, who need buses to get around, to take part in recreation and sporting activities - not to take part in vandalism, but to do really useful things to keep them occupied. There are no buses they can catch to participate. That is why you end up with kids not having anything to do, getting bored and probably doing some graffiti around the place. Oh, shock, horror! Can we look at the bus services in a reasonable way in future?

MS TUCKER (2.48 am): On that last point on ACTION, I saw members over there scoffing at Ms Reilly's connection between graffiti and waiting for a bus. I use the bus service quite often to commute to and from this place. I guess I am not going to be able to get home on a bus tonight. As I was waiting recently - there is an hour's wait after 7 o'clock - two young boys were sitting at the bus stop with me in the cold, dark winter because they had missed their bus. I saw one boy start doing engraving in the seat with his pen. I had been watching that boy for an hour, and he was hungry, he was cold, and he was distressed. I thought it would be interesting for Mr De Domenico to sit at that bus stop with me for an hour and watch who else is sitting there. It is a real shame that, as a Minister who keeps encouraging people - - -

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