Page 4083 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 18 November 2015
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(i) a target to have 10.5% of Canberrans using public transport to get to work by 2016 will not be met;
(2) further notes that, because of these failures, public transport patronage in Canberra has decreased; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to cancel its light rail project and commit to providing adequate investment and oversight of the ACTION bus network.
The recently released Auditor-General’s report into the frequent network is a damning assessment of the ACT government’s handling of public transport in the territory. The report has a look at the implementation of the transport for Canberra plan released by the territory government in March of 2012. A cornerstone of this plan was the establishment of the frequent network. This network was designed to be the backbone of Canberra’s transport system by providing for permanent public transport corridors serviced at a frequency of no greater than 15 minutes. Primarily, we think of the frequent network in terms of the intertown red and blue rapid series, in effect Gungahlin to the city, Belconnen to the city, and Tuggeranong to the city through Woden.
However, less than four years after the release of the transport for Canberra plan, a report from the ACT Auditor-General has called into question the implementation of this frequent network. Amongst other things, the report finds that the Minister for Capital Metro, Mr Corbell, failed to effectively monitor the transport for Canberra implementation working group set up within his directorate. As a result, this implementation working group did not meet as required. Minister Corbell also failed to release an annual report in 2013, as was required.
The way that Mr Corbell deflected responsibility for his role in the oversight and implementation of transport for Canberra came out in question time yesterday. The fact is that, as the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Mr Corbell had control over transport planning from the release of the transport for Canberra plan until July of 2014. Mr Corbell initially released this policy in March of 2012, and many problems identified by the Auditor-General stem from his failings in implementing that policy over those two years. Most worryingly, the minister who developed, launched and implemented the transport for Canberra plan is now in control of a $783 million light rail project.
The now Minister for Planning, Mr Gentleman, released a transport for Canberra report card last year which was riddled with errors and ambiguity. Yesterday in question time Mr Gentleman did not even accept responsibility or provide any information as to why an inaccurate report card was made public on his watch. Some inaccuracies are quite blatant. For instance, the report notes that a commitment to embed rapid corridors in the territory plan has been achieved. It has not. It simply has not been achieved. How a minister could allow these errors to be publicly released is concerning. A 2015 annual report card on transport for Canberra has yet to be released. When is the 2015 report card coming?
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