Page 3124 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019

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This time last year my colleague Elizabeth Lee presented a motion to the chamber bringing attention to the lack of regular maintenance at local shops across Kurrajong and calling on the government to establish and publish a schedule of regular maintenance of local shops and report back on the budget allocation for such maintenance. Of course the government kindly amended the motion to reflect that they already have a public register.

The public register does not have a schedule of shops that are listed for upcoming maintenance, nor does it provide the budget that is allocated for future maintenance projects. However, it provides a list of recent local shopping centre upgrades. Currently there are no upgrades for this year published. But the list does include recent upgrades to Ainslie and Lyons shops—upgrades that took place in 2010. How desperate do you have to be as a government to describe upgrades done in 2010 as recent!

Every year rates go up. In 2019 Yarralumla rates went up by 10 per cent for households and 14 per cent for units. For business owners, commercial rates have gone up by another four per cent in Yarralumla. The ACT government continues to take from the wallets of Canberrans, and what do they get in return? In Yarralumla’s case it is cracked pavements, broken lights, unemptied and overflowing rubbish bins and serious safety concerns for business owners and residents.

I call on the Kurrajong members opposite to get out to Yarralumla, to visit the shops, and to see just how bad your government has let it become. Ms Lee and I have constantly fought for basic public amenity for the residents of Kurrajong. Do something. Make a commitment to the residents of Yarralumla that you will refurbish the area and actually bother to conduct regular maintenance and commit to the basic government services that Canberrans deserve.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Minister for Transport and City Services

Motion of censure

MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (10.24), by leave: I thank members for giving me leave today. I move the motion circulated in my name:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the recent decision from the Minister for Transport and City Services to cut weekend bus services, despite repeated commitments to resolve weekend staffing shortages;

(b) weekend service reliability rates are around 80 percent, well below the 99.5 percent target outlined in the Budget Papers and, as of August, over 3000 services have been cancelled; and

(c) the repeated failures of the Minister for Transport and City Services to deliver more frequent and reliable weekend services, as promised under Network19; and


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