Page 2776 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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MR COE: That equates to $161,000 every single week. That is what it costs for an empty ACTION bus to start its route after travelling from the depot. The new ticketing machine means that there will be only five agents in the whole of Belconnen which will serve as a smartcard reload station—only five. At the moment there are well over a dozen places in Belconnen where you can buy a bus ticket. It will make it much harder to recharge your ticket or buy a ticket. Again, I do not think there is anything equitable about that arrangement. This budget is not fiscally responsible, it is not accurate and it is not transparent. It features wasteful spending, it includes higher taxation and it is anti family.
By the Greens supporting the TAMS component of this budget and by supporting the budget on the whole, they are quite explicitly supporting an increase in the cost of bus tickets and an increase in the cost of parking. They are supporting ACTION, which has more accidents and which has more dead running. It has an antiquated IR system and it has a modal share which is going backwards.
In addition to that, we have more waste going into landfill than last year. The government’s cost of collecting rubbish from the kerbside is increasing. As has been said before, it is also prioritising the arboretum above street trees. It comes down to a core value set as to whether you want to support Canberra families with their urban amenity or whether you want to support Mr Stanhope’s grandiose plans for the National Arboretum. The opposition will not be supporting those plans. The Canberra Liberals will be supporting families—supporting families in their urban amenity and in their local communities to make sure that they have street trees well into the future. I urge those present to vote against this measure.
Sitting suspended from 6.03 to 7.30 pm.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (7.30): I would like to talk about transport under this item. The ACT Greens have long campaigned on improving the ACT’s public transport system. The reality of the situation is that we have one main mode of public transport and we need to provide a reliable, efficient service to encourage people to use it.
We believe that a world-class public transport system should be a goal of government, as transport should be a valid choice for all. A service that can provide commuters with a reliable and fast way of getting to work provides rich rewards socially, environmentally and economically. It is with this in mind that I acknowledge and commend the steps the ACT government has taken, in line with the parliamentary agreement, to build a better transport system for all Canberrans.
The transport for Canberra program builds upon the noted success of the Redex service that provided the first glimpse of a public transport network that represents a true rapid transit network. The ACT Greens believe that providing a genuine and effective transport alternative for everyone is a responsible investment and should be a priority for this and future governments.
Providing the infrastructure to facilitate frequent, limited-stop express routes that connect major stops at employment zones is a first step to a transit network that can
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