Page 4552 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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MADAM SPEAKER: I was waiting for members to settle down before I gave you the call, Mr Parton. A supplementary question?
MR PARTON: Minister, why haven’t our police numbers increased in the ACT in line with our growing population?
MR GENTLEMAN: Our numbers have increased. We have invested even more every single year in our ACT police force. We have announced the largest investment in staff resources, totalling $34 million in this budget. In last year’s budget, we built on the $8.8 million commitment in previous budgets for new initiatives, including funding for enhanced protective security measures. Because of the investments we have made, ACT Policing will be receiving 69 new members out of the PSM.
Transport Canberra—bus timetables
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Transport. It relates to bus timetables over the holiday period. In previous years, the holiday timetable that applied generally for about three weeks over Christmas and New Year has been based on the weekend timetable. Are passengers going to see one local bus every two hours on weekdays during the holiday period?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. We have been working very closely with bus drivers to finalise a bus timetable for the holiday period. It will run for three weeks over Christmas. I look forward to releasing that soon. That will provide all of the details in relation to the frequency of services.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, how are you going to find sufficient staff for weekend services over Christmas, given that there appears to be an ongoing driver shortage over weekends? I imagine that over Christmas a lot of drivers will want to be on leave.
MR STEEL: I thank the member for her question. Of course we want all our workers to be taking some leave over Christmas to see their families and enjoy the holiday period. Much of the Christmas period does take place on ordinary working weekdays and we will have drivers able to undertake shifts. We have been working closely—and we are confident that we will have enough drivers to deliver the timetable that we have been working on—particularly with the Transport Workers Union delegates.
We have been recruiting drivers. Eleven have just finished recruitment training. More than 60 that have come on since April and the number keeps on growing every week as we continue our rolling recruitment program. We will be continuing that over Christmas and into the new year so that we have got more drivers to be able to deliver frequency of services. But I am very confident of the holiday timetable that we will soon be releasing to the public to view so that they can start planning their movements throughout the Christmas period. Particularly on Christmas Day there will be plenty of buses running.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, what are you doing to ensure reliability of the holiday timetable, given the reliability issues plaguing the current network?
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