Page 2447 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
has been for a long time. Minister, how many days will it take you to ensure that that is cleaned off, that this agency lives up to its standards and does something? That is a bloody disgrace!
I want to mention libraries and shopfronts. We have talked here many times about the closure of the Griffith library and the failure to consult with that community. We have often talked about a failure of consultation. Decentralisation of our library services is surely fundamental to the good life of Canberra. Studies overseas have proven that if you have libraries built with, at maximum, a five-kilometre radius for people to use those libraries, they will be well used and provide very important decentralised community activities.
Instead of ensuring that we have got those services well and truly decentralised, this government seems to be closing them down and trying to create a centralised service. This is a pretty good library out here, but it needs to be supplemented by a network of decentralised libraries. I hope the government is not going down the pathway of looking at closing other suburban libraries. You have to ask yourself: with the Stanhope surplus this year, why was it necessary to close Griffith library?
I now turn to ACTION. The Stanhope government has failed to repair the damaged transport system. We have seen people in the TWU and other lobbies describing our transport system as perhaps the worst in Australia. I would hope that that is not the case. These are quite damning claims. While funding for new buses, systemic upgrades and interchange and bus security are welcome, it is still not enough. Certainly, in terms of time frames, not enough is being done.
Year after year essential funding was denied to the transport section, which the Stanhope government has allowed to run down to the status of what many people are now beginning to say is one of the worst systems. We see $8 million for new buses, but this money will just cover the urgent replacement of the part of the fleet that is due to retire in the near future. It will not be sufficient to catch up with the short form of replacement purchases of the last few years. It seems that too often we get stories of buses breaking down. It is thought that ACTION has been about 25 buses behind in its replacement schedule for three or more years, but will still be five to 10 behind even when the 18 or so buses that the $8 million will purchase over two years are put into play.
The next aspect is security and safety. I recognise the $445,000 in the budget for on-bus CCTVs. That is very, very welcome, but again overdue. There is additional funding of about $1.25 million recurring allocated to improving services and securities around interchanges. This still will not be sufficient to ensure an adequate staffing presence, which is much needed to improve the safety of both staff and patrons at all interchanges.
This minister did say in May of this year that he was going to move urgently to improve security at the interchanges because he recognised, rightly, that it was an urgent matter. He did say that he would be moving quickly on this. Yes, we see money allocated in the budget but, no, we do not hear of any immediate action to do something about these interchanges. When will the CCTVs be in place in all of our bus interchanges, and when will there be additional staff working the night shift after last light?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .