Page 2180 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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The noise level of a single bus is less than 70 decibels. A lawnmower at 15 metres is 70 decibels. Because of this noise, we have a policy to encourage people to show respect for their neighbours’ sleep and peace by not using the lawnmower before 7 am. Yet the Labor government have done the opposite. Instead of showing respect to these residents, they have ignored them. Before 7 am, 18 buses leave from the Fraser bus terminus within a 90-minute window. Buses are idling, keeping the bus drivers warm, and some new buses cannot be switched off due to their specific vehicle operation. What the government has done is like bringing in eight lawnmowers and beginning to mow the grass before 7 am every single day for many long, disruptive months. This is why the residents are fed up with this situation, and they do not want to have this as a permanent place for up to eight idling buses at the terminus.
The terminus is located in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in a previously quiet suburban street. Let us talk about the street—a street that was not designed to carry this amount of weight on a daily basis. The road has cracked many times. Authorities have fixed it, but it is a temporary fix, as it will crack again due to the daily weight this street now has to carry.
The bus terminus was designed for two or three buses, yet, because of the increase in buses, an open green area has been removed and trees have been cut down to make way for extra buses to drive onto a nature strip to park. This lovely green space is now a pile of dirt road. When buses turn into the gravel-filled driveway, over time the gravel is slowly removed and the dirt reappears. The gravel has been pushed onto the footpath, creating a slippery and hazardous place to walk for nearby residents. This area needs to be swept regularly to prevent injuries.
Buses are now turning into a dirt road and causing clouds of dirt to rise. The wind picks up the dust and it lands in people’s yards, on their washing, and in their pools. A resident has had to vacuum his pool to reduce the dirt five times within two weeks. When the gravel was added, it did not help either. In fact, it was worse for him: his pool was black from the gravel.
A temporary solution to this, residents have suggested, is to close the driveway onto the dirt road to the buses and open up a driveway further down. This will be more affordable than the regular maintenance of the dirt road and constantly needing to resurface it.
This is a huge mess that the government have created, and they did it without any consultation with residents prior to this change.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mrs Kikkert, your time has expired.
MRS KIKKERT: I seek leave to finish my speech, please.
Leave not granted.
(Time expired.)
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