Page 1190 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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Isn’t that an interesting statement in the context of the Liberals’ new bus transport plan?
Other examples, of course, include the Liberals’ opposition to the introduction of the red rapid route. Mr Coe even moved a motion in this place opposing the red rapid bus route. He moved a motion. That is now one of the most successful routes in Canberra, one of the most successful routes in the ACTION network, and the Liberals are using this rapid model as the basis for their proposed new bus network.
Mr Coe: You called it a rapid express but it was stopping a dozen times.
MR RATTENBURY: Here he goes again, relentlessly interjecting because he cannot handle the facts. When he gets called out for opposing the red rapid route in the last election, moving a motion opposing that innovation, he cannot handle it; he needs to interject.
Then there is Mr Coe’s frequent opposition to the idea of putting more money into ACTION to get better services. This is something the Greens have pushed for over many budgets. In contrast, over several budgets Mr Coe has called for less money to go to ACTION. Each individual pays too much for the ACTION service, says Mr Coe, and he goes to the length of getting out his calculator and calculating how much each individual Canberran pays. He says it is too much; he would prefer to put the money elsewhere or to return the money to individuals in the form of cheaper fees or tax cuts. That is not a very public idea for public transport.
I could go on, because there is a whole history of this Liberal Party invective on buses and public transport. Even today Mr Coe brought a motion that was meant to be all about the supremacy of buses and he spent most of his speech criticising light rail and talking about the roads he wants to build if he is successful in being elected to government. He brought on his own motion about buses and barely spoke about them.
This is how serious these guys are when it comes to public transport. They are actually not. There is no commitment. This is a cheap ploy to try to win the election in October this year. Canberra will be in the same place it is now, or worse, if they are in government because there will be no serious investment in public transport, unlike the Greens and the Labor Party, who have taken the decision to seriously invest in public transport and make a real difference for the future of this city.
I remind the Assembly of these episodes because, when it comes down to it, this debate and the promises that political parties are making on public transport are really about trust, and we cannot trust the Canberra Liberals when it comes to investing in public transport. While I am pleased that Mr Coe and Mr Hanson are expressing an interest in an improved bus network, it is very hard for me, and I would suggest for anyone in the public, to trust them on this issue. It is very hard to ignore the fact that this motion, like so many other motions from the Liberal Party, is put forward as part of a campaign strategy, a campaign strategy simply to oppose light rail as a short-term election strategy.
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