Page 2940 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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It may be a bit of a tight fit in some places, like at that corner up near the Tuggeranong 55 Plus Club. But surely the bus would not be travelling at any speed that would make this difficult or dangerous for the highly skilled bus drivers that we have here in the ACT.
Mr Steel also tried to confuse the issue by saying that I was trying to get cars off Anketell Street. At one point I quoted a resident who has referred to taking cars off. I then explicitly said that that was not what I was talking about. I am not talking about taking all traffic off. I am talking about buses on Anketell Street. If you read my motion carefully, you will see that the word “buses” appears a few times. I do not think the word “cars” appears at all. The two words are spelt quite differently; so there should not be any confusion about whether I was talking about cars, which starts with a “C” or buses, which starts with a “B”. They are quite different. Let us not try to confuse the issue by misrepresenting something that I have said.
So where are we today? Mr Steel has said that there is no decision on removing the buses from Anketell Street. He says that he will bring a paper to the Assembly in June next year. So there is no decision, no commitment, despite years of toing and froing; years of petitions; years of letters; years of lobbying. Apparently, Joy Burch as well has lobbied very strongly to get the buses off. I actually have never heard her say that. She is not here to have her say on it. Maybe she will appear now that I have mentioned her name.
If she has lobbied so strongly for it, why have we had no result? Why hasn’t there been an announcement that the buses are coming off? Why hasn’t Mr Steel listened to Ms Joy Burch’s very strong lobbying in this regard, taken note of it and thought, “Ms Joy Burch knows what the people of Tuggeranong want and I am going to listen to her”? No, that has not happened, because what they probably want to do is announce it as an election commitment which, again, would be pretty foolhardy, because we all know about their election commitments like the SPIRE project which was done on the back of a drink coaster, like the duplication of Ashley Drive, which was promised election after election. It has finally been done.
But what faith can we put in these election promises when we have gone back and forth. We have had community input over and over again saying, “Take the buses off Anketell Street.” Still nothing has happened. Still no decision has been made. Make a decision, please! Say either “yes” or “no”. Just be honest and not go on and on about it.
I move the following amendment to Mr Steel’s amendment:
Omit paragraph (2)(e), substitute:
“(e) report back to the Assembly by the last sitting day of 2019.”.
While I am disappointed that we are not going to get a commitment today or a decision—God forbid we have a decision!—I would like to see Mr Steel come back to the Assembly much sooner than halfway through next year, just prior to an election.
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