Page 152 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2006
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him on his valiant efforts. He talked about the value of dedicated, separated busways; he talked about Brisbane; he talked about Adelaide; he talked about Curitaba; and he talked about Portland. He moved from Brisbane to Brazil and Portland, all round the world, but he would not talk about Belconnen because that would be slightly embarrassing.
What Mr Seselja has done in his motion is to highlight the policy failures of this government and what Dr Foskey has done in her presentation is to highlight further the policy failures of this government. Mr Corbell likes to put down all those who would gainsay him by saying, “Show us what you would do.” I will restate for Mr Corbell what we said at the last election we would do.
Mr Gentleman: You said that you would build a dam.
MRS DUNNE: In addition to the splendid policy of building a dam, which would be an important piece of infrastructure for the economic future of this territory, we said in relation to public transport in general that the first thing that we would do would be to integrate the planning of transport and urban planning in this place. Mr Corbell talks about it, but Mr Corbell has not delivered on his office of planning. Mr Corbell has not done any of the things that he said he would do. He is the person who has the power and he is the person who pulls the levers of government. The first and most important commitment that we made was to fully integrate the planning for public transport and planning for transport generally with urban planning.
Mr Corbell says that he will do it, but he has been going to do it for four years and has not done so. Mr Corbell has talked about many of the things that we talk about. There is a great deal of commonality here and we must recognise that. Both the opposition and the government, and to a lesser extent the Greens, have talked about the integration of town planning and how you create the critical mass necessary to make public transport work effectively, that is, by creating certainty for your public transport and by increasing densities in appropriate places, which is why in the run-up to the last election and constantly the Liberal opposition talks about increased densities around public transport routes, about transport routes generally, and about the importance of that in creating the policies that will bring about effective public transport.
Mr Corbell talks about his sustainable transport plan and he talks about the great steps forward that they have in mind for modal shift. Quite honestly, the projections for modal shift, that is, moving from one means of transport to another, are pretty meagre; they are pretty meagre indeed. Mr Corbell will come in here from time to time and say, “We are making progress, perhaps are even ahead of time, in our move towards modal shift.” At the same time, you will see that there has been no increase in bus patronage. There has been no significant increase in bus patronage over the last two budgets; nor has it been anticipated.
Mr Seselja: In fact, there has been a decline.
MRS DUNNE: In fact, there has been a decline. In the budget before last the only reason that there was going to be an increase in passenger boardings was the rise in population. In fact, the increase in overall boardings was less than the growth in the population. Again, this is a failure of this minister. The other thing that we said before the last
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