Page 508 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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matters little whether he was given a hospital pass with this network. What does matter to Canberrans is that their concerns are indeed being listened to. What matters to Canberrans is that they have access to a reliable public transport network that will get them where they need to go when they need to go. What matters to Canberrans is a minister that will take responsibility for the role that he has been entrusted with and a minister that is big enough to acknowledge that his government got it wrong.
I commend Miss Burch’s motion to the Assembly and I thank her for her continued efforts to stand up for Canberrans left behind by this government. My constituents know that, after 19 years of Labor, the only way they will get a service that works for them is via a change of government, and, like us, they cannot wait for October.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Minister for Health and Minister for Urban Renewal) (3.29): I was not intending to speak on this motion, but I need to respond to Ms Lee’s comments because she is yet again misleading the people of Narrabundah in relation to this matter. When the previous changes were made—changes that preceded network 19, with the introduction of the green rapid route R6 route—Ms Lee, and probably Miss Burch, were trying to tell the people of old Narrabundah that there was no longer any bus that was servicing Narrabundah shops.
This was not true. The Canberra Liberals caused a lot of confusion to the old Narrabundah community through the messages they were sending about bus route changes. I had people coming up to me at my mobile offices saying, “My goodness, there will no longer be any buses servicing Narrabundah shops.” I said, “Well, that’s not right. That’s not true.”
Ms Lee: Point of order, Mr Assistant Speaker. The minister is referring to certain comments that I have apparently made that have misled the residents of old Narrabundah. Can she please specify what those comments are, because she is just talking in a vacuum?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: What I say in debate should not be dictated by Ms Lee.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Pettersson): There is no point of order. If Ms Lee thinks that she has been misrepresented she can take it up outside the debate.
Ms Lee: That may be so; however, I do not know what the member is referring to, so I do not know what to respond to when she says that I am misleading.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Ms Lee, there is no point of order. Ms Stephen-Smith.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. As I said, I was referring to comments that were made to me at my mobile offices which I hold regularly across the inner south. People were representing to me that they understood there would no longer be a bus service in old Narrabundah and at the Narrabundah shops. That was clearly part of the messaging from the Canberra Liberals—that all of the bus service was being removed from old Narrabundah. That was never true. At that time there
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