Page 3114 - Week 10 - Thursday, 18 October 2007
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Clearly the committee has not identified time frames which will see urgent works undertaken; therefore, we must assume that the violence problem at bus interchanges is ongoing. It is an immediate problem; it is now an in-your-face problem. Sadly, through the report we see little attention granted to how best the government might be encouraged by that committee to address these urgent issues.
We heard again in the news yesterday of another violent assault during daylight hours at the Woden bus interchange that apparently occurred in the last couple of days. There are so many other assaults that are simply not reported. We hear often from parents about their kids; they are concerned about their kids sitting at these bus interchanges between 4 and 5 o’clock. And the concerns are expressed so frequently.
I therefore am disappointed to see no concrete identification in the report about what the CCTV situation is at the bus interchanges, and the only recommendations about CCTVs are those relative to on-bus cameras, rather than cameras inside the interchanges. I remind this place that the minister made a statement in May 2007 that he would be addressing this particular issue, that he would be embarking on a program, but we do not see, in any identification of what that program is, how long it will take, how many cameras are needed, what they will cost and when they will be inserted. So again it is quite disappointing that the report has not picked up on that.
I just want to move on to transport officers. At least the report has quite honestly picked up the feedback from transport officers, bus drivers, about their concerns. I refer to paragraphs 2.11, 2.17 and 2.18. The general comments in the report noted that several submissions refer to the stress that ACTION bus drivers have experienced. While a lot of this stress can be attributed to the reaction of patrons to inadequate timetabling—I have heard from transport officers that they themselves have had to deal too often with the frustration of passengers, deeply disadvantaged as a consequence of the destruction of the timetables after the 2006 rationalisation, the government’s rationalisation, which of course is key for cutting services, to cut budgets—I do not see any mention of this in the report.
I do not see the report making an honest appraisal and saying, “As a consequence of the rationalisation exercises of 2006, the timetables have been thrown into disarray.” So it is an empty report. Standing up, crowding on buses: yes, we see that. At 2.17 of the report, there is talk about crowding. But, apart from a vain attempt in recommendation 6, there are no concrete recommendations to address the problem of crowding on buses in peak time.
Mr Speaker, let us now look at the rock throwing issue. Yes, the report says what a shame it is that we have got this problem with rock throwing. But again, apart from identifying that there is a problem with rock throwing at buses, the report does not encourage the government on how they might best tackle this problem; what other strategies might there be available. The committee did not inquire into and find other ways of tackling this issue. The committee has skimmed over a major concern, which is the throwing of rocks at buses. I am very pleased to see the government will be holding an inquiry. But, in addition to that inquiry, this committee should have taken the opportunity to make a recommendation. I refer to paragraph 5.99 in relation to that.
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