Page 5738 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 6 December 2011
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same is true on other transport routes such as Belconnen to Civic, Gungahlin to Civic, and south and south-east Canberra to Woden and Civic.
I would also like to use this opportunity to encourage the government once again to engage in the federal government’s new liveable cities program. My colleague Ms Bresnan has raised this with the government. This basically is a program that does have money attached to it so that major regional cities that are experiencing population growth pressures, housing and transport affordability cost pressures can put up a project, and we really believe that the cross-border transport project is a perfect project to put forward for the liveable cities campaign to attract some funding.
I would also recommend to the government that the funding for the Canberra Avenue project be accompanied by revised bus operations to create a more cooperative and unified cross-border bus network, and this should include improvements such as consistent fares and free connections between the two jurisdictions. We want to make sure that it is a seamless system between Queanbeyan and Canberra, and we should also be looking at the benefits of park and rides as part of this initiative. This really needs to be talked about and discussed at the eastern regional transport task force. I know that my colleague Ms Bresnan has raised issues about the task force. There are some concerns that some of these issues are not being discussed and then progressed so that we get some real outcomes, some real cooperation on the transport issue.
Another transport issue is around rail, and we need also cooperation across borders. We need to take up the considerable opportunities to advance rail services in the ACT, including light rail, high speed rail, rail freight and regional rail. We need to prioritise sustainable freight transport by developing a rail precinct in the vicinity of East Lake and Fyshwick, and this must include rail freight facilities. Freight transport is a growing problem in Canberra as we are concentrating more and more on road freight. And this is the reason given for building the Majura parkway. At the same time our use of rail freight is declining. It appears that ideas for sustainable rail freight have been abandoned.
The Greens also want the ACT government to engage with the New South Wales government and local New South Wales councils to coordinate improved cross-border rail services. This is about regional rail services. This is about being able to get to Bungendore, Cooma and other regional towns and cities near Canberra.
High speed rail is of course something that we support and the federal Greens very much pushed for the feasibility study that we are very pleased to see is in place now. We are entering stage 2 of this feasibility study. We very much support the study. We want to see that first lot of rails put down between Sydney and Canberra, and we urge the government to lead on this, to continue to push that link between Canberra and Sydney as being such an important one if light rail is to go ahead.
Of course, we need to be looking at health in a regional way. There is the national health reform and the introduction of local hospital councils, and we are hoping that the councils could work on a regional rather than just a jurisdictional basis. It is disappointing that this did not happen, as this is the one place where there really would have been a benefit to have a greater regional focus.
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