Page 2956 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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from the opposition who say public transport is too expensive, not enough people use it, the community should not pay for it, it should be cut and savings returned to individuals in the form of tax cuts. Cutting bus services is certainly not a priority of mine.
Network 14 improves efficiency, and improving that efficiency and the network is a priority of mine. With regard to the implementation of network 14—and earlier today in question time I touched on some of the improvements—the intent of the network is to straighten out routes, increase frequencies and improve connections.
I take on board Mr Hanson’s comments about the fact that it is clear that not everybody is happy about network 14. There have been changes to the network and I have had feedback from people that they are not happy with the new network, it is not convenient for them. Unfortunately that is the case. We never promised it would benefit everybody, but certainly overall this network, as I touched on earlier, is delivering 300 more services a day across the network than network 12 did. It is delivering an increase in services on the weekends and it continues to expand to the new parts of Canberra where new residents are seeking new services.
I know the network team have worked incredibly hard to deliver a network that they believe is an improvement for the citizens of Canberra. Some of the more derogatory online comments have been from, frankly, people who operate anonymous Twitter accounts. The things that have been said about the team at ACTION and me are from people who operate anonymous Twitter accounts. The fact that it is anonymous says everything you need to know about the person behind that account. The fact that Mr Hanson then favours those tweets reflects as much on him as it does on me, I think.
There is a lot of discussion about what Canberrans think is important and what are the real priorities. I have heard several members confidently declaring what it is that Canberrans want when it comes to transport priorities.
To help this debate, let me offer some interesting facts about community attitudes towards public transport and priorities. Firstly, Canberrans want a greater proportion of their transport scheme to go to public transport. Canberrans were independently surveyed about how they would spend $1 million of new funding on transport in their neighbourhood. The results were very interesting. People in the community said they would give cycling and walking, or active transport, 43 per cent of the funding, public transport would get 37 per cent and motorists would get 20 per cent. I was very surprised by that, and I was very encouraged by it, because I think it speaks to the fact that Canberrans know that quality of life comes from being able to get around conveniently and that they do not just want to hop in their cars. They do want to be able to take up active transport and they would like to see improving infrastructure for that, to make it easier and more convenient. I completely support the findings of this community survey and the attitude of Canberrans in prioritising that area of funding.
A second interesting fact is that Canberrans rate public transport as a high priority when compared to other issues. Another survey this year, carried out by a professional company, asked Canberrans which issues are important to them. Canberrans listed health and education as most important, which is usually the case in these polls, and
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