Page 2813 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 June 2010
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allowed the trees to die. He will be the great tree killer of Canberra. He will allow them to die, and Canberrans will suffer the lack of amenity as a result of not having the street trees that we have come to enjoy—not having them properly replaced and not having them properly maintained.
Of course, that is despite what the government says in relation to the urgency of this program. Apparently it is not as urgent as the arboretum; according to this government, according to the Chief Minister, according to the Labor Party in the ACT.
I did want to speak about some other issues in the TAMS portfolio, and it is worth looking at the issues around waste and our public transport system. I would just make the point again that we heard in relation to this budget—I think it was the Treasurer who said it—that, in relation to public transport, they were taking “a bit of a carrot and stick approach”. I think that was the term that was used—a carrot and stick approach. It is not clear to us what the carrot is, but clearly we know what the stick is. The stick is higher parking fees—to try and force people out of their cars.
The message to people in the outer suburbs is to catch the bus. Of course, for the vast bulk of people living in the outer suburbs, working in Civic, working in Woden, working in the parliamentary triangle, working in Belconnen, working in any of the major employment centres, the reality is public transport will simply not serve the needs of the community. So the carrot has not been taken care of—not even close. In fact, we see bus fares actually going up as part of this carrot and stick approach. It is the stick and stick approach, where the government is actually increasing bus fares, increasing parking fees, slugging families and saying, “Well, it is so that we can get more people on the bus.”
Is it working? No; we are seeing fewer people get on the bus. But the message is loud and clear, and it is saying to people in Tuggeranong and to mothers in Banks, Amaroo, Evatt, Holder and right around the territory, “You should catch the bus.” It is interesting that it is those who do not catch the bus who are often preaching to others that they should be catching the bus.
So we see this approach, which is, “What we will do is make it harder for people to park and maybe that will get them on the bus.” But for the mother who is living in Calwell, who has to drop the kids off at childcare or preschool or school—and the father who has to do the same—and go to work in Civic or in Belconnen, the reality is it is simply not an option. So what we see from this government is that they are not giving real solutions to people. What they are doing is simply saying, “We will slug you more.” The main reason, of course, they want to slug them more is that they have not been able to manage the budget.
We get to the issue of waste. We have seen over time the Ernst & Young report, which actually dealt with the issue of waste within territory and municipal services and the significant cost overruns that were not dealt with. Now we see the government acknowledging the significant waste in ACTION—the millions of dollars, which Mr Coe touched on, including half a million dollars from just not collecting the fares.
Mr Coe: That is a lot of trees.
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