Page 1824 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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While the transport elements of the budget do bring long overdue improvements to infrastructure, and again we acknowledge that, there is still an inability to have vision beyond a small predicted modal shift that the government seeks to cater for. The proposed priority lanes and new stations provide increases to the amenity and timeliness of some services, but the system does not provide services to everywhere in Canberra or the ability to have an effective bus service that can compete on timeliness with private car transport.
Before I go on, I need to briefly comment on some of the narrative coming from members of both the government and the opposition regarding our approach to cars and transport in general—that we are somehow seeking to force people out of cars. We believe that it is the responsibility of government to give people affordable, effective and sustainable choices so that more people can make the economic decision to use alternative modes of transport. It is regrettable that, rather than talk about this seriously and engage in a debate about the long-term future of transport in Canberra, people have dismissed us as pushing people out of cars.
All parties in this place know that the cost of private car transport will go upwards regardless of what actions governments may take. We are approaching the point where most, if not all, of the easily accessible fossil fuels in the world will be being drained, and logic dictates that this restriction to supply capacity can only lead to fuel prices far higher than anything we have experienced before.
It is clear that public transport wins cost arguments when it comes to the family budget. However, as was proven by the Redex trial—which we acknowledge has been an extremely successful trial; we acknowledge the government for that—the choice of transport mode is primarily influenced by time considerations, significantly frequency, and time-to-destination factors. Timeliness of service is dictated by priority, limited stops and route decisions. We welcome measures that the government has taken to improve on these factors on major routes. Unfortunately, this is undermined by areas of the coverage network not providing a sufficiently rapid connection to the frequent express network. We hope that this will improve with the commencement of the new ticketing system and route changes that will provide much-needed information about where those routes need to go, and when and where people are getting off buses.
This is about providing an economic, effective and sustainable alternative right now and into the future. The total cost of running a car is a large and growing cost to people, one which many choose to bear because of the perceived time savings a car offers. I believe that the people of Canberra, if provided with a fast, comfortable, affordable and world-class public transport system, would make use of this.
I realise that this might be a bold statement to make, but it is one supported by precedent—precedent set by a Liberal administration. I speak of the decision by the Brisbane City Council under a Liberal lord mayor to invest heavily against popular opposition in their busway system, a system which has delivered overwhelmingly large increases in public transport usage and which has since secured popular support. More importantly, that infrastructure decision will support generations to come. It is a one-off investment that will pay dividends in social and economic costs for decades.
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