Page 4759 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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is absolutely fantastic. We will continue to make sure that we encourage students to use public transport going forward.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, when will you acknowledge that as a result of the network changes more cars have been on our roads because parents are concerned about their children’s safety on Canberra’s transport network?
MR STEEL: When the number of student dips below the levels of the previous network, and we have seen the exact opposite of that. More school students are using public transport, which is fantastic and is the exact outcome the government was trying to achieve with a new transport network and the expansion of light rail. We are trying to attract people to use public transport overall. Whether they are students or older Canberrans or anyone in our city who wants to move around, public transport is a great option, and we want to make it a viable alternative for all Canberrans, including students. We will continue the work that we are doing to expand light rail to other parts of our city, particularly on the south side. That is something that we on this side of the chamber are absolutely committed to. Of course, we have heard complete silence from those opposite on their plans for transport. They have none.
MS CHEYNE: Minister, how has the government been supporting students to engage with the bus network?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Cheyne for her question and for her interest in public transport. Of course, as part of the new network changes we had customer service officers available at all of our interchanges. They remain there providing information to all customers of Transport Canberra. They are providing information about how to get around our transport system.
I know from feedback from members like Ms Cheyne and Ms Berry that this is a service that is really valued by Canberrans. It is a new service that has not been available before. It is something that I think we will keep on working with because it is a system that is enabling people to use public transport and also get used to what was a very significant change to the public transport system, the biggest change since 1999. Obviously, we needed to provide people with information and those customer services officers have been really important.
We also engage very closely and directly with the schools, providing them with information about the bus system. We will continue to do that through the schools liaison committee in particular to meet the needs of individual schools. We are looking at improvements around active travel so that students and their families feel comfortable about walking the last part of the journey to school and crossing roads around schools. We have just recently this week released the evaluation report on the school crossing supervisor program, which has shown very positive results and certainly supports our government’s investment in making sure that students feel safe going to school, walking to school and going on public transport.
Lake Tuggeranong—water quality
MS CHEYNE: My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage. Can the minister provide an update on water quality in Lake Tuggeranong?
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