Page 2930 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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that the government was caught out by the tip filling up. How can the government not know how much rubbish is being taken to the tip and exactly what capacity there is at the site?
I will happily now turn to ACTION buses. Last year ACTION recorded a subsidy of about $120 million. Again they failed to meet their targets for the cost per network kilometres and cost per passenger boardings. Passenger boardings were also overestimated and trips per person had once again decreased. Last September ACTION modified their timetable with the introduction of network 14, which was subsequently modified in May this year.
One notable change made to the timetable this year was the increase of bus services running from Gungahlin suburbs to the city, with a subsequent decrease in the number of routes running exclusively from the Gungahlin town centre to the city. I found it quite strange that the government would go down this path rather than increase the number of shuttle services to the city and increase the number of 200s or 202s, which would have been in effect the forerunner to light rail. The fact that they are doing integrated 200s such as the 251, 252, 255 et cetera shows that there is a demand for people going from their home suburb right through to the destination rather than transferring onto another service.
Unfortunately network 14 saw the removal of direct services from elsewhere. Crace is one of the few suburbs to not have a direct service to the city, at least during peak hours, and I will continue to advocate that such a service be introduced.
This year ACTION is set to record another $120 million subsidy. This subsidy does not include a further $17.2 million which was required for a range of reasons such as workers compensation claims. Also this year the ACT government will complete a review of ACTION. At some point soon we hope to get a thorough report from the minister as to exactly what has taken place and what the proposed reforms are. I look forward to seeing what these reforms are and I hope to see this as a catalyst to build an even better ACTION in the future.
With regard to roads, unfortunately Labor is only good at building half a road. This budget only provides for part-duplication for Gundaroo Drive and part-duplication for Ashley Drive. Whilst I support these duplications, because I believe they have a good return on investment, I am surprised that the government is not doing the job properly. With Gundaroo Drive, it is just a case of triple your rates but triple your wait. It is just a third of Gundaroo Drive being duplicated in this year’s budget. The duplication of Ashley Drive is more substantial, however still falling short of Johnson Drive. It is quite peculiar that it seems to stop just a few hundred metres from Johnson Drive, and there is not really a rationale as to why that is so. Unfortunately, with money being tied up with light rail, the government is only able to build part of the road. That is very typical of ACT Labor, especially when it comes to Gungahlin.
The budget also provided the chance for the government to commit to a flyover of the Barton Highway roundabout. As many people are aware, issues surrounding the tender processes prevented the government’s Barton Highway signalisation plan beginning earlier this year. The budget therefore provided the government with a very good opportunity, a good chance, to recalibrate this policy and to go for a flyover,
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