Page 2803 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018

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I really look forward to the team from Transport Canberra getting all of this consultation, having all of the feedback, making some changes and discussing with the Canberra community what those changes mean, why we have made them and why we need to fundamentally redesign our bus network.

Underpinning all of this is a massive investment from the government in more bus travel right across the territory. This is a real opportunity to go from eight per cent of Canberrans using our bus network to many more people coming to rely on public transport as a reliable, fast and easy way to move around the city. You catch the same bus on a Friday as you do on a Sunday. You do not need to look at a timetable because you know that the bus will turn up, you know that it will take the same route and you know that there will be more and more people using the bus. That means fewer people on our roads, less investment in major road infrastructure, fewer carbon emissions into our community and more opportunity for people to get involved in public transport.

This is a real opportunity. I want to be clear that the consultation was absolutely genuine. We will be making changes. We do not know what all of those changes will be, but we look forward to continuing this conversation and looking at the feedback we have received. I look forward to the views of the committee on the petition that has been tabled.

MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (10.17): I would also like to offer my support for this petition. As a member for Yerrabi, I attended the community protest on 25 July at Crace and heard many stories from the local residents. On the following weekend the residents had a community stall in Crace and collected many signatures from local residents, who all understood the concerns that were raised about this bus service being taken away from local residents.

Forcing our local residents to walk over a kilometre to catch a direct bus from Crace to Belconnen is really unacceptable. To force residents to go from Crace to Gungahlin, then from Gungahlin to Belconnen, is also unacceptable. To have to do this in order to do their shopping, to go to their medical appointments and so forth, is purely unreasonable.

I would like to thank the residents of Crace for petitioning and collecting signatures on this very important matter that directly affects them. I hope that this government takes this into consideration and provides a service that local residents in Crace so desperately need.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Petitions

The following petitions were lodged for presentation:

Tuggeranong town centre masterplan—petition 11-18

By Ms J Burch, from 24 residents:


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