Page 2766 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016

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MS FITZHARRIS: I thank Mr Coe for that question because I am very pleased to talk about reducing congestion along Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue. As we already know, the rapid services that service this current route and additional services are almost at capacity during peak times, as is the road network, certainly along Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue. I am often in the Gungahlin town centre of a morning and you can see that the bus will fill up at peak time and, on occasion, not be able to pick up other passengers along that route because the demand is so high for public transport services along the Flemington Road-Northbourne Avenue corridor.

That is exactly why this government is delivering a solution for congestion along the Northbourne Avenue and Flemington Road corridor. We are the only party with a solution for congestion along the Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue corridor. Let me be very clear—

Mr Coe: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

MADAM SPEAKER: Point of order. Stop the clock, please. Mr Coe, on the point of order.

Mr Coe: The question was how will adding 40,000 new people to the corridor, which is planned by the government, and also adding more than half a dozen new sets of signalised intersections help congestion on the corridor.

MADAM SPEAKER: While Ms Fitzharris is clearly speaking about congestion, I ask her to be directly relevant to Mr Coe’s question, which is about population and signalisation. Ms Fitzharris.

MS FITZHARRIS: Certainly, Madam Speaker. Additional residents along the corridor are moving there now. They will move there anyway, and they will move there in greater numbers because they know that this government is delivering a fixed public transport corridor and a fixed public transport mode down Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue. There are hundreds, potentially thousands, of people who have already moved into that corridor because they know that this government is delivering light rail. They are the same people who Mr Coe will ask to vote for him in this upcoming election. They do not want to risk their investment in their first home—with reduced stamp duty, I might add—in their first business, in their family home along Flemington Road and Northbourne Avenue. They have bought there because they can count on this government to deliver our priorities.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Burch.

MS BURCH: Minister, can you update the Assembly on the success of the government’s new free city bus loop and other policy options for an integrated system.

MS FITZHARRIS: I am delighted to update the Assembly on the success of the free city loop bus service. Every week, on average, 1,400 people are boarding the new city bus loop service to move quickly and conveniently around town. I am pleased to


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