Page 39 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
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MR STEEL: I thank Ms Le Couteur for her question. Members will be seeing brand-new Scania buses that are made with bus check that have been coming off the production line in Adelaide and will be seen on our public transport network. These buses are replacing some of the old Renault PR2 and PR3 buses that have been around, some of which are up to 28 years old. Those 40 new buses are replacing existing old buses. Over time we will need to continue to replace the rest of the Renault fleet as well as the LNG buses that are in our fleet.
We have funding to purchase an additional 84 buses and we are hoping that, through that program, we will not only be able to replace the old buses that we have but also grow the number of buses in the network. That is very important.
Mrs Jones: Point of order, Madam Speaker. The question asked was: how many is the net increase. I do not believe that we have been told yet the net increase. I note that the minister is headed towards his very important concluding remarks.
MADAM SPEAKER: Maybe he would have got there before you stood, Mrs Jones. Mr Steel.
MR STEEL: I said that they were replacing the existing buses, so they are not designed to grow the number, but over time we will be able to grow as a result of the further 84Â that we will be purchasing over the next few years. That is very important, because in order to grow the network to new suburbs and to add more frequency we need more buses and we need more bus drivers. We are in recruitment for more bus drivers at the moment and we will need more buses as well to couple with them. We want to put those on the routes to make sure that there is more frequency.
The opposition wants to cut 22 services in peak times. That is their policy; they have announced and reiterated that policy this week. They will cut 22 buses.
Bushfires—economic impact
MR PETTERSSON: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, can you please update the Assembly on the impact on the ACT economy of the bushfires and smoke?
MR BARR: There is no doubt that the smoke that blanketed our city and gave us some of the worst air quality in the world severely disrupted our everyday lives and livelihoods. It is going to take some time to calculate the full financial and economic impacts of our summer of disasters but there is no doubt that our economy, particularly the hospitality and tourism sectors, has had a very difficult time over the past two months. Visitor numbers have declined and some businesses, large and small, had to temporarily shut their doors to keep out the smoke.
With the worst of the smoke behind us, we have certainly seen the best of Canberrans though. Our resilience has been on display. Locals have come out in support of both local and regional businesses in the immediate aftermath of this summer period. We have been actively working with our business community for some weeks now, first
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