Page 927 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 March 2019
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city, especially given that there has been an increase of over 1,200 students moving into campus accommodation. It is inconceivable and unacceptable that the Labor-Greens government could ignore the voice of the university community on this matter.
This petition calls on the Labor-Greens government to reinstate this service. We must ensure that both on-campus and off-campus students can get to class and to work and be active members of our community. The government must do better and listen to our community and consult them on these changes that affect their ability to conduct everyday activities. We call on the government to reinstate this service.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (10.31), by leave: I thank Zyl, the President of the Postgraduate and Research Students Association, who is here today. I have presented a petition signed by 1,128 Canberra residents calling on this Assembly to urge the government to provide viable public transport on the ANU campus. This petition responds to the decision to cut the No 3 bus route which has operated for 39 years.
The ANU student newspaper for 26 March 1980 noted that the government was giving some consideration to the introduction of a bus that would connect the university with the rest of Canberra, and students were encouraged to express their interest. A few months later the bus service was due to begin. That service has continued from 1980 until now. One could argue that the university grew up around this bus route and the assumption that it would continue.
There are now 12 student accommodation facilities located along a 1.5-kilometre stretch of this route, several of them newly built. Together, these residence halls house a staggering 3,274 students. I would like to put this number in perspective. I am a member for Ginninderra; so I will use my electorate for comparison. The 3,274 students who live on the western edge of the ANU campus exceed the populations of Aranda, Charnwood, Cook, Fraser, Hawker, Higgins, Macquarie, Melba, Page, Scullin, Spence or Weetangera.
Imagine what the response would be if this government decided to cut the bus service to one of these suburbs. Yet this is precisely what they are doing to 3,000-plus students, and they have done so with almost no consultation. One poorly advertised feedback session was held on campus in August, with only 30 students attending.
The undergraduate association was separately consulted but the postgraduate student association was not, despite more than half of ANU students being postgraduates. Aware of this inexcusable oversight, the postgraduate association requested a consultation. I have been told that it followed this government’s now familiar pattern. Officials show up, tell the students what is going to happen and tell them it is going to happen whether they like it or not. End of problem. Except it has not ended the problem.
This e-petition attracted over 1,100 signatures in less than one week. My office has been contacted by a student who does not have an ACT address but wanted us to know that she finds the No 3 bus “invaluable”. This response is not the end of the problem; it is the beginning. The loss of the No 3 bus means that thousands of
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