Page 187 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 2018
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Third, the decline in the number of stops serviced in the inner south is astonishing. There are many stops—some of them our beautiful, iconic bus shelters—which are now school-only stops. Since 2014, 28 bus stops, 14 pairs, in Red Hill and Narrabundah have had their regular services removed. This results in longer distances for patrons to walk to their nearest bus stop and more money spent by the government in building new bus stops. Why does this government insist on change for change’s sake, even at the expense of cutting off essential services for Canberrans who need them most?
Fourth, let us talk about the Franken-route. Rather than providing a vital link for inner south residents to get to the Woden town centre or the Canberra Hospital, the altered No 4 route terminates at the Fyshwick outlet centre. It seems that to this government ensuring that people get to the outlet centre for shopping is more important than having a vital link to the Canberra Hospital. Prior to the election, the proposed green rapid route was just a vague green line on a blurry map of Canberra and failed to let voters know that the services would be at the expense of a vital route through old Narrabundah. How duplicitous and expedient is that?
Fifth, the lack of proper consultation and the dismal failure of the minister to communicate with bus users is just not good enough. In my capacity as their local member, I had my office do a letterbox drop to the residents of old Narrabundah to inform them about the introduction of the No 6 bus and the alteration to the No 4 route. What followed was a flood of correspondence from my constituents, by far the most contact with my office I have had since I was elected. Not only were the residents concerned, bewildered and outraged by the disadvantages from the changes, but the information that my office letterboxed was the first notice they had received of the route changes. Not only would this government rob the people of old Narrabundah of their bus route; it would do so with little or no information, let alone consultation, as to how this change would affect them.
In September, in response to a question I asked the minister about what consultation she and her directorate had conducted prior to the decision to cancel the No 5 route, she said:
Information is being made available to residents now.
That was in September, after the decision was already made. “Now,” she said, back in September, after my office had had a flood of complaints from concerned residents. This government’s communication leaves a great deal to be desired. Any suggestion that the announcement of the new No 6 route in the lead-up to the 2016 election as consultation ignores the fact that there was no indication that other routes would be altered or cancelled as a sacrifice to implement the new No 6 route.
The minister claims that there are now more buses in Narrabundah than there were prior to October 2017. This is true only as a technicality and ignores the fact that old Narrabundah, a section of the suburb where we know there is a good proportion of our elderly and mobility-impaired Canberrans, now must make do with a less frequent,
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