Page 3134 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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Despite what those opposite might say, you cannot ignore the facts. The facts are that we have more people catching public transport. The facts are the facts. I understand that in the month of June weekend journeys increased by 32.7 per cent and weekday journeys across the public transport sector were up 6.1 per cent. We have one of Australia’s best public transport systems. Yet those opposite spend their time undermining the system and the hardworking Canberrans who keep our city moving. That is why this is a stunt.
Why is it that the Canberra Liberals are obsessed with attacking our public transport network and our hardworking staff who get up early and work late to keep Canberra moving? I suspect the answer is that they do not believe in the public service. They want to do everything they can to undermine confidence in our public transport system so that they can privatise it. Privatisation and cuts are central to the Liberal DNA. Just look at what Mr Tony Abbott did, leading the world’s worst federal Liberal government in terms of our city.
Look at South Australia. There is another Liberal government that is attacking public services and privatising public transport. Let me reiterate that. The Liberal government in South Australia is privatising public transport, and this is surely what we can expect in the event of a Canberra Liberal government. When they attack essential public services like transport and health and when they say the words “efficiency” and “red tape reduction”, you know it can only mean one thing: cuts to essential services and cuts to the public service.
Unlike those opposite, I would rather see a Minister for Transport and City Services who backs our public servants and our bus drivers, a minister who believes in public services and a government that invests to grow the services in our city—an ACT C Labor government.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Transport and City Services) (10.53): I also thank Miss C Burch for bringing this motion to the Assembly. Since the start of the new transport network, record numbers of Canberrans are taking journeys on public transport, particularly on the weekends. Despite the significant increase in patronage, changes to the bus network of such magnitude have been a challenge, and I have acknowledged that weekend reliability in particular is not at an acceptable level, from both the community’s point of view and the ACT government’s. In the eight weeks since I have been minister for transport I have been working hard to ensure that weekend bus reliability improves.
The motion before us touches on three key issues: ensuring more frequent and reliable services on weekends, improving weekend reliability rates and what measures the government will take and is currently taking to improve weekend services. More people are using buses on the weekend than ever before. Under the new network there have been significant increases in the number of services and the frequency of services provided on the weekend. More buses are running more often on the weekends, with 27 per cent more journeys taken on public transport recorded since the end of the free travel period, compared with the same period in 2018. In the first
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