Page 2947 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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quickly. At 1(b) the minister states that Canberrans said they wanted more direct routes, yet under the new network we will be seeing many more transfers, cuts to the Xpresso services—and it really does not get more direct than the Xpresso services— and fewer bus stops. At 1(b) she also says that Canberrans wanted increased services across both on and off-peak times, including evenings and weekends. Yet we are seeing so many people losing suburban services.
At 2(b) she says that almost 80 per cent of those surveyed said they would be prepared to walk further to a bus stop if their journeys were faster. Yet under the proposed new network we are seeing door-to-door travel times become longer for many people. I strongly suspect that if this question had been rephrased and people were asked if they would mind their total journey times increasing, the answer would have been a resounding no.
At 2(e) the minister talks about Transport Canberra having consulted directly with older Canberrans about these proposed changes. Yet we have heard from countless retirement communities and bodies who claim that they were not consulted. Only yesterday we saw a petition lodged by over 500 residents from just one retirement community about these proposed changes.
At 3(a) the minister’s amendment talks about releasing timetabling before the new network commences. This entirely ignores the issue of consultation on new timetables. It is completely inconsistent with what we have already heard from the deputy director of Transport Canberra. And really it is quite laughable, because you would certainly expect that a timetable would be released, at the minimum, before the new network commences.
I also draw the Assembly’s attention to a media release by Minister Fitzharris on 6 August entitled “Record bus patronage supports proposed new network”. This is yet another example of delegitimising the consultation process. By in effect correlating statistics with an otherwise unrelated conclusion, Minister Fitzharris is serving to undermine the process by discrediting any view which contradicts the proof that the media release outlined. Rather ironically, what the minister is saying is, “The current system is working, so let’s completely overhaul it.” An example of this lunacy is that the media release also cited tertiary students as a large driver of public transport use in Canberra. Yet under the proposed new network the No 3 service that runs directly through the ANU is going to be cut.
This government is making it harder for children to get to school, employees to get to work, elderly people to get to their medical appointments, and the sick to get to hospital. If this government really did take public consultation seriously, then they would see how poorly designed this new network is.
As late as yesterday, the minister admitted, “We have not heard much from those who don’t use the network.” Just to be clear, this new network has been designed and is intended to be implemented for Canberrans who do not use public transport and who did not contribute to the consultation process, at the expense of those who do currently use the network.
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