Page 3380 - Week 09 - Thursday, 22 August 2019
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some new routes. I have been from Belconnen to the Old Canberra Inn, which is direct, for those people who want to know. I have taken the bus from Belconnen to Dickson. Of course, I still regularly use the bus to get to work here.
I am very proud to speak about the efforts here. It is not perfect; I do not think anyone on this side says that it is perfect. But it was worth doing to try to encourage greater take-up. There is more work to do in this area, but there has been some great work done already.
MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (3.41): I thank my colleague Mr Parton for giving us yet another opportunity to discuss this very important issue. Once again we have heard the minister stand here and claim that network 19 has been a huge success. Once again we see him patting himself on the back for what he claims to be a successful network. But the truth of the matter, Madam Assistant Speaker, is that thousands of Canberrans have been negatively impacted by this network; thousands, not a few, as Ms Cheyne will have you believe. And the largest impact has been on those in our outer suburbs.
The minister has admitted here and on ABC radio that patronage in Tuggeranong has fallen, a fact that he failed to mention today. We on this side of the chamber have been inundated with correspondence and contact from people who have lost their bus services and who have been negatively impacted by this network. Thousands of Canberrans have signed petitions that have been presented here; not a few Canberrans but thousands of Canberrans who have been negatively impacted. The government continue to ignore these Canberrans. They continue to disregard their comments and complaints. These Canberrans are sick and tired of their complaints falling on deaf ears.
I cannot quite believe the patronising response that we had from the minister today, saying to Canberrans, “It will get better once these residents learn to use the new network.” The problem is not that they do not know how to use the new network; the problem is that they have lost services and they have lost bus stops.
I have no doubt that we will hear screeching again from those opposite about cuts, about privatisation and about efficiencies. I am sure Mr Gentleman will run in here any second now, to lecture us about how the Liberal Party is trying to cut and privatise the network. But this government continues to forget the inherently public nature of public transport.
As I have said in this place many times before, there are two purposes to public transport. There are commuter services, which aim to reduce congestion and get people off our roads and around our city quickly, and there are other public transport services for those who do not have other options: for those who are mobility impaired, for those who do not have a car and cannot afford a car, and for those who depend on public transport to get around our city. Once again it is those people who have been most significantly affected by these changes.
It is this government that continues to ignore the public nature of public transport. The former minister for transport continuously spoke about efficiencies. When she spoke
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