Page 3605 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 September 2019
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Doctor, the hospital and visit friends. In some instances they just caught the bus to talk to others and have an outing. To be able to go to the shops, buy a coffee and talk to the person at the next table. This has been taken away from them and they feel totally excluded from life so much so that some begged me to stay and have a cup of tea with them because they were just so lonely. They were relying on the generosity of their neighbours to pick up a few groceries for them. They are relying on their children or grandchildren to take them to appointments or to drive them around for other needs. People just don’t have the money to catch a taxi everywhere.
There are many other examples, Madam Speaker, from older people, from younger people with families who are suffering from the cancellation of school buses and from people who have their grandchildren for a day or longer during the week and would have used the bus to take them out on outings. We have already heard that since the cancellation of these businesses Tuggeranong has seen a decrease in patronage of buses. The person who did the petition says:
Some residents have said it is taking them 90 minutes to get from their homes in Wanniassa Hills to the Hyperdome—
South.Point—
by bus. That is absolutely ridiculous. The trip by car takes 10 minutes.
They could have taken the bus on Longmore Crescent, which is no longer possible for them.
The person who did the petition goes on to say:
We see on our rates notice we are paying 5% for Public transport. What public transport? It has gone? You have taken away our bus services. The residents believe they are entitled to a 5% refund or the bus services back? We don’t mind paying for education and health because everyone benefits from that but why should we pay for a bus service that has been cancelled …
There is now a bus service that everyone does not benefit from. She continues:
… give us back the bus service we had.
Thank you for taking the time to read a few comments Nicole and hear how the cancellation of these bus services has affected people.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (10.06): Like my colleague Ms Lawder, and also Mr Wall, I spend a lot of time talking to people in Wanniassa at the moment. They are absolutely dismayed. They are really angry. I have to say, Madam Speaker, that there are a number of conversations that I am not able to fully quote in this chamber because the language that is used by these people is not parliamentary. I can forgive them for using such language because they are so upset.
In this chamber, I have already mentioned Mary, who is 76 years of age and who has been a regular user of the buses for decades—for decades. Now she says that it is not
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