Page 4679 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 27 November 2019
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of the time. Residents also raised concerns about the unpredictability that plagues the network. Buses now frequently come early or late, they said, and often they are completely full and do not stop at all.
One resident, who recently separated from her husband, spoke about how she no longer feels safe catching a bus after having been left stranded by overfull buses both on her way to work in the morning and at the bus interchange in the evening. She also expressed concern that a one-kilometre walk to and from the nearest bus stop in the dark of winter is simply not safe.
As a result, residents of Belconnen are turning away from the public bus network, as the latest patronage data clearly show. The Barr government’s stubborn determination to make the public transport system less convenient, less efficient and less safe has had a significant impact on many families in my electorate and many other parts of our territory.
I join Miss Burch in calling on the Minister for Transport to fix these problems as a matter of priority.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (5.04): I would like to thank my colleague Miss Burch for bringing this motion to the Assembly today. Whilst this topic of the new bus network has been discussed for some time now, it continues to be a very hot topic. I know I continue to receive a lot of correspondence and contact from constituents about this. Miss Burch’s motion highlights the failings of the Canberra bus services at the moment. She highlighted that they can be infrequent, with few services running, that they can be unreliable, that they can come early, or leave or arrive late, and that there can be long waiting times. She also talked about the closure of bus stops.
There are a few aspects of Miss Burch’s motion that I will address today. She has already discussed them in a well-rounded way and has explained her position on all of them, so I will just pick a few. The first is that the failure of the new bus network is making women feel unsafe when using public transport, especially at night. We have heard about the closure of 750 bus stops. This means users of the bus network, including women, will have to walk further to reach a functioning bus stop. This is especially an issue at night for women, who feel unsafe. The perception of being unsafe is enough of a deterrent for them. They have to wait longer for their buses, and they can feel uncomfortable and unsafe while waiting longer for their bus to arrive.
A survey by the Women’s Centre for Health Matters has highlighted that this fear is very real and tangible for women in Canberra. The minister said that they are working with the Women’s Centre for Health Matters, but my question is: why wasn’t this done before the new network began? Why wasn’t this considered before these bus stops were closed? Why wait until we have these issues raised by the Women’s Centre for Health Matters, then say, “We’re going to consult on them”? It should have been considered through the lens of women’s safety before these changes were introduced.
Whilst I am focusing right now on women’s safety, this can apply to many other demographic groups in our community. Miss Burch highlighted schoolchildren and
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