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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3999 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I am very proud to have raised with the Minister the issue of the bus services for Gungahlin. I do not think the Minister would have ever paid any attention to bus services in Gungahlin unless I had raised the issue in this place. I am very pleased to see that ACTION is now listening to the demands of the Gungahlin community. But it is about time, and it has taken the actions of this side of the house to make it an issue for this Minister. That is a disgrace. It is a disgrace that this Minister is so unaware of what is happening in his own public transport system that he has to act on complaints rather than focusing on exactly what is happening in the bus system.

Mr Speaker, this motion is an important one. It is about the level of services that people in Canberra receive. It is about the ability of people in our city to travel from one place to the other. They should be able to have the choice of travelling on an effective and responsive public transport system that takes them where they want to go and when they want to go. That is what this motion is all about. It is about highlighting the failure of this Government to deal effectively with the issue of public transport and the failure of this Government to provide a fair, equitable and responsive bus service for Canberra.

MR SPEAKER: I would like to welcome the pupils of St Francis of Assisi Primary School, Calwell. Welcome to your Assembly.

MS HORODNY (11.57): Mr Speaker, there is no doubt that the public transport system in Canberra has been severely run down in the last three years. Services have been reduced. There is no doubt about that. Routes have been short-circuited. We now have loops in our bus services and people are forced to stay on the bus for a longer period. They are forced to go around suburbs rather than directly to where they want to go, and they face delays in getting to where they want to go.

The fares are certainly not attractive. Mr Kaine said that ACTION has done some research on fares and this has shown that fares in the ACT are cheaper than in other States; but, Mr Kaine, you do not look at bus fares in isolation from the competition, and the competition is always private car transport. Bus fares might be more expensive in Sydney, but parking is so difficult and parking fees are so expensive that overall those bus fares are comparatively cheap. In the ACT we do not have that balance between bus fares and parking fees.

Bus fares in the ACT are certainly not cheap when you have to catch two or more buses. One of the things I would like to see implemented in an improved ACTION bus service is transfer tickets, so that people who need to catch more than one bus are not disadvantaged by having to do so. Their need is to get from A to B, and the fact that there is an interchange in between is not really their problem. They should not be having to pay for that design. The fares are also not attractive when you look at the fact that parking in the ACT is abundant in all town centres and probably in most other shopping centres, possibly with the exception of Manuka, and parking is relatively cheap. It is very cheap in Civic and Woden. I believe it is free in Belconnen, and I think it is free in Tuggeranong as well.

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