Page 2631 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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dismay that 2½ weeks out from the application of network 14, the route bus service timetables are not available. Many people who are being told they need to connect their new school bus routes with route bus services cannot do so because the route bus service timetables are not available. Many people who have timetables to meet in the morning or afternoon do not know whether the buses they currently catch will help them meet that timetable. Many students go all the way to school on route bus services, and they do not know whether the times will change in a way that will make it possible for them to get to school on time. I come from one of those families where children travel literally across Canberra to go to school, and if there is a five-minute change in the bus timetable, it can mean the difference between getting to school on time or not.
One of the great burdens people currently have is the times that buses turn up early. I have had numbers of constituents complain to me that when they have complained to ACTION they were told that the time on the bus timetable was essentially a serving suggestion and it would be 10 minutes either side of that, which makes it quite difficult for people, especially young children. (Second speaking period taken.) So my constituents have been told, “If it says that it’s going to turn up at such-and-such a bus stop at this time, expect it to arrive any time within 10 minutes either side of that.” So you leave home 10 minutes early with the possibility of having to wait perhaps 20 minutes for the bus to turn up. That is completely and utterly unacceptable and defies the notion of a bus service. It is not a service, and that is one of the reasons why we are seeing, as Mr Coe has quite rightly pointed out, falling performance indicators for the ACTION bus service.
The people of the ACT expect to see many things out of the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate. There are high points and there are low points. I look forward to seeing the government come good with its promise to Cook shops that it should be refurbished and that it be refurbished in consultation with the shopkeepers. The shopkeepers have a long list of things they would like to see done at the Cook shops. Most of them are not expensive, but they need to be done and they need to be done in consultation with the shopkeepers to serve the people of Cook.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (5.22): I rise briefly to note Mrs Dunne’s interest in the work that I have been doing with my constituents in Cook, who are her constituents as well. I thank her for her interest in my work, but then the bunkum started to fly thick and fast. The Cook shops upgrade has been announced in the budget; the minister has already announced this is going to happen. Any attempt to create mischief and to create doubt in people’s minds that this is actually going to happen is pure trouble making. We are seeing a lot of bunkum being floated by Mrs Dunne which really ignores what this government is doing—that is, upgrading a set of shops which is, indeed, as Mrs Dunne notes, very worthy of an upgrade. It has already had a new toilet placed close to the shops, which is something that the shopkeepers were very keen to have done. I thank the minister for the action in undertaking that.
I also have been out talking to the shop owners and business owners at Cook shops and listening to what they think is needed. I am looking forward to the further consultation which is going to happen with the directorate as the design progresses through the design, development and construction phase. All this sort of bunkum that Mrs Dunne is wafting around is just that—bunkum.
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