Page 832 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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terms of facilities, services and parking. Certainly that has been a topic of discussion in Weston Creek for a number of years now, with people recognising that the arrival of the earlier residents in the new suburbs with the facilities coming a bit later, as they tend to—and I will come back to that point later—was always going to provide some transitional pressure on Cooleman Court.
Mr Gentleman also outlined that the government has recently developed additional car parking spaces in the area. I know they have certainly provided a good option, particularly for long-term parkers. The master plan also identifies key actions. One is improving pedestrian safety and reinforcing pedestrian and cycle connections in the centre, and it would be fair to say there is definitely room for improvement there. The second is integrating the frequent rapid bus network into the centre. Both of those things identified in the master plan would be great improvements for Cooleman Court. I focus on those because this is a motion that is essentially about transport. I think it is important that we include a broader discussion on this topic and not just confine it to car parking.
I raised issues of transport in Weston Creek once before and we talked about the importance of transitioning to sustainable transport and providing better bus services and cycling and walking options. An example I would like to cite is the success of buses in Molonglo in recent years. When I was the TAMS minister I was very focused on ensuring buses went into those suburbs of Wright and Coombs early on in addition to extra Xpresso buses servicing the Weston Creek area generally.
Buses such as the 83 and the 783 started off pretty empty as the population was just growing, but now they are so full that at certain times it can be difficult to get a seat. All of these people travelling on these buses are people who are not driving and not putting so much pressure on our road infrastructure. I think this is a great outcome and certainly illustrates the value of providing services early on as people form their habits when they move to a new area. I would very much like to see more of these services in place in Weston Creek and Molonglo to continue getting these good outcomes where customers clearly have responded to the provision of services.
It is worth reflecting on that previous debate a little bit and I will quote Mrs Jones’s response from a previous motion when I raised the issue of sustainable transport in Weston Creek and Molonglo because I think it is a very revealing statement. She said:
Mums and dads trying to get their kids to school and earn the double income needed to survive these days should not have to pay the price for this minister's mung bean, soy latte vision of a utopian society where inner city yuppies can catch a tram to work. That is his view and it punishes those working the hardest to produce another generation of ratepayers. It is a disgrace. The idea of mode shift is anti-mum, anti-family and arrogant. It says, “We know better than you what is good for you.” The Greens minister is out of touch and dictatorial.
That was a pretty extraordinary quote. The fact that we refer to children as “another generation of ratepayers” is revealing in its own right, but I think it is a fantastic statement because it reveals very clearly what the Canberra Liberal Party actually thinks about transport, about our city’s future and about the different needs of Canberrans from different walks of life.
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