Page 5146 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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services such as the Redex will complement the government’s long-term transport plan. The government will continue to plan for a sustainable future for Canberra and the region, supported and created by a sustainable, transport friendly, urban form with increasing sustainable transport options for all Canberrans.
Let me just reiterate, in the face of the continued opposition from the Liberal Party to the trial of this new rapid transit frequent service, a service that has been long demanded, that we hope this trial will enable the government to have the information and community support to continue to expand services such as Redex throughout the ACT. I find that remarkable.
It has been commented on by a number of radio commentators and, indeed, by the Canberra Times, that the Liberal Party’s opposition for opposition’s sake approach to almost everything that happens in this place and happens in government is exemplified by the attitude of the Liberal Party to the Redex service. They are not even prepared to give it a go. They are not even prepared to wait for the outcomes of the first day, let alone the first week. They trenchantly criticise the service before it has even commenced. They are not even prepared to support a trial of a new service and, in not supporting the trial of the new service, they simply do not understand what it is that commuters look for first and foremost in public transport.
What they look for first and foremost is reliability, frequency, the knowledge that if you stand at a bus stop or station a bus will come. It is the number one determinant of public transport usage or satisfactory surveys. The number one determinant is: can I stand at this bus stop and know with certainty that a bus will come within a certain time frame? In this instance, it is within 15 minutes. It is the great determinant—frequency, reliability. If I stand at this bus stop, this bus operator commits to me that at no time will I ever have to wait more than 15 minutes. It is the number one determinant and it is remarkable that the Liberal Party does not understand this and that the Liberal Party’s spokesperson does not understand this.
Mr Coe: How do you get there, Jon, on a route service?
MR STANHOPE: Mr Coe, embarrassed as he has been by his attitudes to this, asks, “How does anybody get to it?” On the first day, the boardings were 1,398; 1,398 people knew how to get there, and the 1,398 people are incredibly grateful that the bus was there for them to catch. And they will long remember this, particularly those people—and it was interesting that even Alan Kerlin, the head of the Gungahlin community association, was among them—who are bagging the Liberal Party for not preparing to give it a go and, in not preparing to give it a go, bagging the Liberal Party for actually not supporting the residents of Gungahlin. Talk about a litany of lost opportunity by the Liberal Party here!
Mark Parton, that paragon of left-wing socialist support, bagged Alistair Coe for being oppositional for opposition sake. I have never heard anything like it. When Mark Parton comes out and says, “Young fellow, don’t you think you ought to give it a go? Don’t you think you should abandon your opposition for opposition sake’s stance in relation to just this issue, if no others,” I must say it is the high-water mark—Mark Parton, bagging the Liberal Party for being opposition for opposition’s sake, not even being prepared to give it a go.
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