Page 833 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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The Canberra Liberals sometimes pretend they support sustainable transport—only in the form of buses of course—or that they support walking and cycling. But here is their real view on these matters: the idea of mode shift is anti-mum, anti-family, arrogant and dictatorial. If they do not support mode shift then they clearly do not support public transport or walking or cycling or the people who want to or need to use these modes of transport. Ironically, this, of course, includes thousands of families and mums and kids, and that can be demonstrated any day of the week if you go to any school in this city where plenty of mums are bringing their kids to school by walking and biking.
There will not be any efforts into non-car modes under a Liberal government. Canberra will be a car-dominated city, and all its growth and change will have to be managed with roads and driving. Now, what does this mean? It means there will be growing pressures, such as parking pressures at Cooleman Court, which Mrs Jones has rightly identified today. With all the increasing car travel, Mrs Jones will need to bring back motion after motion in the Assembly calling for more roads, more parking, actions to cut congestion and actions to protect amenity. A car-dominated city is not friendly for families. In such a city it is difficult for kids to find space to play, to walk or ride to school. There is more local pollution, and that is not good for young lungs.
One of the major negatives of a car-dominated city is that it is costly—costly to the government as it provides more and expanded infrastructure, but also costly to households and to families. Transport is a major cost. Running cars is expensive.
What about people who do not drive or cannot drive—old people, people with disability, young people, and others? What happens to their mobility option in this future world where you can only get around if you have a car? Social exclusion is a serious issue and another one that the Liberal Party completely ignores in its obsession that is being put forward in this sort of headspace.
What is actually anti-family, anti-mum and dictatorial is to remove people’s transport choices and say that you can only travel well around this city if you drive. In any case, eventually drivers will not be travelling well as we go through a car-dominated city consequence of a downward spiral of congestion, expense and pollution. The supposed benefits of the car-dominated city ultimately evaporate.
As Molonglo continues to develop additional facilities, it will be developed to cater to the growing population. Certainly as the education minister I was pleased to welcome students to the new Charles Weston School at the beginning of this school year, an example of the infrastructure that is starting to take shape as the Molonglo Valley population grows. Last year land was sold for the local shops. This allows for a supermarket of up to 1,000 square metres and additional commercial facilities. Other community facilities including a childcare centre, medical centre and community hall are also planned in the local centre to serve the growing population of Coombs and Wright. These facilities may also be used by a wider catchment, including some residents of Weston Creek.
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