Page 3375 - Week 09 - Thursday, 22 August 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I am running out of time, which is equally a problem, but I want to briefly mention two things. The ACT budget has funding for 84 buses over four years. But the majority of these are replacement buses, not additional. We are going to be replacing 72 of the non-disability access compliant orange buses, so 84 minus 72 is only 12. So it would appear on the basis of the budget commitment that there will be only an additional 12 buses, and that is really not good enough.
The other one I would like to talk about is safety and accessibility. I asked this question yesterday, but unfortunately the minister chose to answer only about the bus interchanges. The problem is not so much the bus interchange; it is the perceived danger of walking home from the bus or to the bus. Madam Assistant Speaker Cody, you spoke about this earlier today in responding to the domestic violence committee report. You said that people tell young girls that walking home from the bus is dangerous but that the reality is that intimate partner danger is potentially more problematical. While that statement is true, in terms of what people think about, as you said, people are concerned that the trip from the bus stop to home is dangerous.
That message was really pushed home to me at a Tuggeranong Community Council meeting I attended, where their youth committee talked about buses. There was a strapping young man—about a foot taller than me and I am not quite sure how many kilos more but physically a lot more capable than me—who said that he did not feel safe walking home from the bus. I walk home from the bus on a regular basis and I do feel safe. But we need to improve the infrastructure so that people believe that it is safe, and for people with disabilities we need to improve it so that it is not only safe but practicable.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Transport and City Services) (3.23): I thank Mr Parton for bringing this matter of public importance to the Assembly today. As members know, the ACT government has made a major investment in public transport since we came to power in 2016, following the election, to give Canberrans a realistic alternative to getting away from their cars and into a bus or on to light rail.
This investment allowed for the introduction of a new public transport network, with every bus route across the city re-designed to give Canberra a modern public transport system for our growing city, as Ms Le Couteur mentioned, based on a hub-and-spoke model. The key benefits of that network include an expansion of the rapid network from four to 10 routes, including light rail on the R1 route; more frequent services; and an all-day, seven-day network with a step change in service levels on weekends, including the same routes as on weekdays and much more frequent services that start earlier and run later.
The scale of the increase in services has been significant, giving Canberrans the opportunity to use public transport and making the network more attractive for those who could choose to drive but would prefer not to. As a result of these improvements many Canberrans now have a public transport service that meets their needs, rather than a second-best service that might have got them to work or school but did not give them a realistic alternative to getting in their cars for other trips.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video