Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3013 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

In less than a week or in about a week there have been 950-odd signatures put on a petition. This Government took notice of 18 or 20 senior citizens. Will they take notice of the 900-odd people who say they want bus services retained for those eight suburbs?

Mr De Domenico: We will take notice of the 90,000 who say they do not.

MR BERRY: Mr De Domenico says, "No, I am not taking any notice of those 900". What we have demonstrated here is that the community has reacted. Some senior citizens have mounted a successful campaign. Thankfully, at least on the surface, the Government says that it will retain a service outside their units. What service we are yet to discover. We are not sure that it will be the same service that they had before. We are not sure that they will not reduce it. It is plain that there was an intention to cut services in Belconnen. There still is, for those eight suburbs, Mr De Domenico, is there not? Yes, there is.

Mr De Domenico: I said nothing, Mr Berry. I will give you my tirade when I get on my feet.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr De Domenico will have the chance to put his point of view shortly.

MR BERRY: Those eight suburbs are still at risk and those small business people who operate businesses at Kippax Fair are concerned about the feeder routes which bring customers to their shops. This Government cannot say that it represents small business when it behaves in this way. It cannot even pretend to claim that it represents small business when it behaves in this way. This motion is about calling on the Government to review this proposal, ensuring that services to Kippax from those eight suburbs are not cut and ensuring that access to public transport for the aged, such as the residents of Collingrove Court, is not reduced. The Government has to be unequivocal about this and say that it supports the motion. If it wavers, we will take that, and the community of Belconnen will take that, as a clear intention to cut services.

On this whole issue, the most notable thing has been the silence of Mr Hird and Mr Stefaniak. Once the 18 or 20 senior citizens had decided that they had had enough of this Government and they had made it public, Mr Hird and Mr Stefaniak started to get interested. Mr Stefaniak whipped out there and had a little afternoon tea with them, and the Government changed its mind. What a result for those people! They were going to have their bus service taken off them. The Government says that they will give it back. We are not sure of the form. That has to be watched. We will be watching that closely. There will be more petitioners at the Kippax shops making sure that they protect their customers and their businesses from this Government.

Clearly, a community uprising has resulted in an outcome. We still have some work to do on retaining the bus services from those suburbs. Is it not just like the Mr Squiggles episode? Mr Squiggles was on the radio one morning saying that the squiggles were wonderful, very efficient and quite safe. Six phone calls later Mrs Carnell was on the phone saying - - -

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .