Page 475 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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That this Assembly calls on the Minister for Transport to apologise to Canberrans for introducing the transport disaster that was Network19 and ignoring the feedback given during the Network19 consultation process that anticipated the issues that have since become a reality.
I rise today to once again bring the Assembly’s attention to the disappointing and disrespectful conduct of Minister Steel. While hundreds of Canberra families have faced months of transport chaos at the hands of this government, it is not the chaos alone that frustrates so many Canberrans; it is this government’s and this minister’s attitude towards them that frustrates them so greatly.
Despite making a huge number of tweaks and recently announcing what can only be described as a significant overhaul of the network, the minister still refuses to acknowledge that, firstly, they completely got it wrong and, secondly, they have totally refused to listen to Canberrans.
The facts remain, Madam Assistant Speaker. Months ago, the government had enough feedback and information to anticipate every single tweak or adjustment that has now been made. They had almost 18 months of consultation prior to this network being rolled out. They have received over 13,000 pieces of feedback, 10,000 petition signatories, hundreds upon hundreds of emails and comments on social media, and over 40 news articles since June 2018, which I read out in this place only last year, and yet they continue to refuse to listen. Over and over again they ignored or dismissed the concerns and feedback of Canberrans.
What I found baffling throughout this entire ordeal was the minister’s continued claims that these changes have reflected a process of listening to Canberrans when it is just so obvious that network 19 has reflected anything but.
The minister said last week that he had been “listening to feedback on the network” and that they are “making changes”. What happened to the scathing feedback contained in his first ministerial brief about the network changes? What happened to the 10 months of consultation undertaken from mid-2018 right up until the network was rolled out last April? Where is the your say report that depicted in great detail the concerns of parents, children and the elderly who rely on the network to get around Canberra? Where has the minister buried the feedback contained within the petitions totalling over 10,000 signatures and tabled over the course of nine months? What about the petitions lodged on 30 July 2018, 1 October 2018, 13 February 2019, 23 March 2019, 4 June 2019, or 14 May 2019? It is baffling, it is arrogant, and it is completely disrespectful.
To be honest, Madam Assistant Speaker, even if the minister did choose to ignore the thousands of signatories of the petitions or the damning patronage data declaring the new network a disaster, he only needed to open the Canberra Times to get a real sense of just how badly he had failed. I refer to an article dated 25 July 2018 entitled “‘Insulting’: bus route changes hit elderly, defence personnel” and one from 5 September 2019 titled “Canberra bus network changes leave elderly housebound”.
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