Page 2210 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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services are government owned and some are not, but that is exactly what integrated transport planning is. It is about planning and making agreements.
The government understands what a public-private partnership is, but it does not seem to be able to extrapolate that beyond simple business. It could just be a series of agreements between the various stakeholders on which parts will deliver people to which places and where the hubs would be. Transport is big business, with many owners, but coordination is possible; indeed, it is necessary. Integrated transport planning is certainly not simple but, if well done, can bring about excellent results which could please most Canberrans. NightLink is certainly one such step. Let us keep going.
Light rail is one area where we are starting to see interesting partnerships forming. The Canberra Business Council and the Conservation Council are forming a task force to make the case for light rail. We know that the Canberra Airport is also interested in such a project. But where is the government with this planning? Left behind again! There will be one bus priority lane on Flemington Road for the next four years, at a cost of $3 million. It makes you wonder how far that would go in terms of a light rail system. I believe that in 2002 a light rail from Gungahlin to Civic was costed at $80 million to $90 million. It is interesting, is it not, when you think about how much the GDE cost and also when you think about what it would do for land values along Flemington Road?
In estimates the minister for transport advised me that the territory’s various transport initiatives are not coordinated. When talking about ACTION buses the minister was most enthusiastic about how committed ACTION is to delivering a good service to its customers. But it was clear that there is no overarching strategy in place to make it easy for people to live in Canberra without a car. All the good innovations taking place on our buses in terms of fares and bikes and scheduling are happening in isolation.
The excuse is always made that Canberra is a small city spread over a large area. Canberra is not unique in that respect. But, sadly there is absolutely no evidence that the government is looking at innovative transport solutions being developed by other cities of a similar type. It is another sign of a government that appears to recognise the challenges of building a low carbon, low oil consumption society but has no commitment to taking them on. One of the key components of Canberra’s carbon footprint is our dependence on cars. Progress on an integrated rapid transit system so that we can be free of that dependence has been far too slow.
Waste is an issue of continual concern for the ACT. Only recently we saw on the front page of the Canberra Times that the ACT is one of the more wasteful places in Australia. That is not surprising. We earn on average more and we consume more. Of course we produce more discarded packaging, worn out appliances and, simply and more shockingly, I believe, things that people buy thinking they want them, find they do not and then have got to get rid of. People spend something like $1,000 per capita per year on stuff they do not even use, so they just chuck it away. They make that impulse buy—that pair of shoes or that new appliance—and it is just a great waste.
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