Page 4175 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018

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services is designed to encourage more young people to start using the bus. (Time expired.)

MS CODY: Minister, can you further outline the next steps for the implementation of the network?

MS FITZHARRIS: I thank Ms Cody for the question. Transport Canberra will continue to engage, as they always do, with the community in the transition to the new network. With the new network now settled, the team at Transport Canberra will finalise the timetable before the end of the year and an improved journey planner will also help customers understand and use the new network. This will also be available later in 2018. Further information will continue to be made available to help ensure that everyone can transition to the new network and new customers can start using it easily.

As part of the consultation, the community asked us to improve infrastructure and customer service. We will invest in more customer service officers and the new electronic ticket machines, which have started to be rolled out across the territory; they are not yet operational but we are excited to see them start to be located in interchanges. We will also improve footpaths and signage around schools as part of the very successful active streets for schools program.

We have also committed to increasing and renewing the Transport Canberra bus fleet as well as building the Woden bus depot. The development of this network represents one of the biggest investments in Canberra’s buses in decades. The government will continue to increase its investment in our bus fleet, bus infrastructure and bus network services, and our commitment to great public transport services for Canberra as our population continues to grow.

We are proud of our investment in public transport and we know that it is only this side of the chamber that has always supported public transport and always will.

Canberra Hospital—emergency waiting times

MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. On 15 August 2017 you told the Assembly that “Canberra Hospital emergency department waiting times are coming down”. You repeated this claim a number of times between August 2017 and February 2018. However, the annual report just published clearly shows that waiting times were going up in Canberra Hospital in 2017-18. Why did you mislead the community about Canberra Hospital emergency department waiting times?

MS FITZHARRIS: I did not.

MRS DUNNE: Minister, was it the case that ACT Health did not tell you waiting times were going up or you did not understand the advice that you received or did you just misrepresent what was happening to the Canberra community?

MS FITZHARRIS: None of the above.


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