Page 149 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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MR SPEAKER: All that the standing orders require of an amendment is that it be relevant, Mrs Dunne.
MR CORBELL: I move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“noting the ACT Government’s commitment to tackle Greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the number of journeys to work by public transport, walking and cycling:
(1) endorses the targets set out in the Sustainable Transport Plan to increase the number of journeys to work by public transport to 9% by 2011 and 16% by 2026;
(2) notes that the Sustainable Transport Plan concludes and recommends that a dedicated corridor system (such as a bus or transit way) with public transport services operating on a fully or partly dedicated right of way is justified for Canberra;
(3) endorses the Government’s decision to undertake forward planning and design work to further investigate and plan for dedicated transit corridors between the City and Belconnen and the City and Gungahlin; and
(4) notes that any future funding for the development and construction of these corridors will be considered by the ACT Government in the budget context.”.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (4.12): I thank Mr Seselja for providing this opportunity to debate the ways that we can improve Canberra’s transport services. We are traversing familiar territory here and Mr Corbell had a good go at trying to predict what the Greens would say. Since we have been saying these things for 10 years or so, he is likely to have it fairly right.
I acknowledge Mr Seselja’s assertion that there does appear to be some government doubt about the future of the Belconnen to Civic busway and that the public would like to know whether this project will go ahead, when it will go ahead and whether the large sums spent on marketing it have been justified. However, I feel that both Mr Seselja’s motion and Mr Corbell’s amendment are missing the bigger point when it comes to the discussion of transit corridors and sustainable transport.
I listened to what Mr Corbell had to say and I do feel that he is becoming very well informed about the issues concerning dedicated bus corridors. When I heard him mention Curitaba, and we know that he has been to Portland, I felt that he was coming into territory that the Greens have been in for quite a while, but we are still finding that the ACT government is just playing around at the edges of the actions that need to be taken with its spending on real-time technology when we keep hearing that people want an increase in the frequency of bus services and bus services that allow them to come home from work in reasonable time if they find themselves staying that extra half hour into the time when buses move into the evening timetable. Sitting around on a bench, where there is one, in Civic, Belconnen or Woden is not something that people will choose to do if
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