Page 902 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2012
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has also announced. For example, last Friday I announced that the government was commencing consultations immediately with the community on five new possible sites for park-and-ride facilities across the city as well as six new possible sites for bike-and-ride facilities across the city, including locations for park-and-ride and bike-and-ride like Charnwood, Wanniassa, Curtin and the Gungahlin town centre. These facilities have been warmly welcomed by the community when they have been established elsewhere in this city. We have seen the very popular Mawson park-and-ride facility. We are seeing growing use of bike-and-ride facilities at places like Melrose Drive in Lyons.
So we are seeing Canberrans responding to the government’s initiative to deliver better public transport cycling and walking infrastructure on the ground. This year we will deliver 600 upgraded bus stops. We will also be commencing work on 12 major new stops at high-patronage locations and a further eight by mid-2013. Of course, work is now underway on the finalisation of the new ANU Exchange bus station adjacent to Marcus Clarke Street. And this year we will be investing in 30 kilometres of new cycle paths across the ACT.
This demonstrates the Labor government’s commitment to improving Canberrans’ transport choices. It demonstrates our commitment to tackling the issue of congestion on Canberra’s roads and it demonstrates this Labor government’s commitment to deliver more sustainable transport choices that will help us make the shift to being a more sustainable city into the future.
MR COE: A supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR COE: Yes, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Minister, why is it that Minister Hargreaves, Minister Stanhope, and yourself as recently as last year, failed to get a seven-day roster as part of the EBA for ACTION staff?
MR CORBELL: The issue of a seven-day roster is a very difficult industrial issue that needs to be addressed. The government is indicating in the policy our policy determination to get that fixed and to deliver a more reliable and consistent network on weekends, not just from nine to five, because that is what Canberrans have told us they want.
The government has responded in transport for Canberra to the two very specific comments made in the community consultation process. The first is the weekend network, but the second is the frequency of those suburban services, those public services. By setting those benchmarks of the 30-minute coverage service, that is a very important policy commitment by the government. It is going to be challenging; it is going to have a range of implications. But it must be stated clearly in the policy framework because the policy framework will inform the decisions around service delivery, around budget funding, around the delivery of those services on the ground. That is why it is there, and it is there because Canberrans told us they want it to be there.
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