Page 3371 - Week 11 - Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Our government has gone above and beyond to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we will continue to do so as our economy recovers. As my amendments foreshadow, we will continue to support businesses through initiatives like the Outdoor Activation Taskforce. We will also explore ways to support COVID-safe events held by businesses and community groups, through the use of public land and support for temporary traffic management measures, to ensure that the community can enjoy coming together again after so long.
I would also like to address some of Ms Castley’s suggestions in relation to public transport. The most generous description of the proposed changes is that they are well intended. A less generous interpretation might be that this is a continuation of the Canberra Liberals’ general recklessness when it comes to the handling of the pandemic, stemming way back to when the previous opposition leader, Mr Alistair Coe, declared the pandemic over, way back in May 2020.
The first and most obvious point that we need to remember is that the pandemic is not over. This community has led the world in our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we can be proud of that. Thanks to our world-leading levels of double-dose vaccinations, we are now taking gradual, responsible steps towards a COVID-normal life.
Public transport is, unfortunately, a high-risk setting for the transmission of COVID-19. It is an enclosed environment where people can sit closely together, sometimes for extended periods of time. That is why it remains one of the few settings where we will continue to require masks to be worn beyond Thursday evening. We do not want to undo the hard work of Canberrans and the sacrifices they have made over the past two years by rushing into changes that will unnecessarily increase community risk. We believe it is too soon to be encouraging people back onto public transport in droves. Believe me, there is nothing I am looking forward to more than being able to welcome people back to public transport when the time is right, but we are not quite there yet.
That being said, we recognise that many Canberrans rely on public transport to get around, to work, to study, and to access essential services. That is why we took extensive measures to ensure that public transport has remained safe and available during the public health emergency, including through the use of masks, check-in requirements, increased cleaning and moving to cashless ticketing. This approach has been driven by the health advice at every stage.
Many cities around the world cut public transport services quite dramatically in response to the pandemic. We did not. We actually increased and expanded services during the pandemic last year. I am happy to say that we are providing an additional 692 bus services each weekday and 236 Saturday services. We have increased the frequency of morning light rail services from every six minutes to every five minutes and extended peak services through to 7 pm on weekdays. This greatly assisted with social distancing on buses and light rail last year by spreading out the passenger load and giving people more options about when they travel.
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