Page 2179 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory
This petition of certain residents of the Australian Capital Territory draws to the attention of the Assembly that it is proposed to close the West Belconnen Waste Facility and that no replacement site within Belconnen has been identified by the ACT Government.
Your petitioners therefore request the Assembly 1. To review the decision to close the current facility, 2. if the facility is to close, then identify an alternative place in Belconnen and 3. ensure that a new facility is operational before the current facility is closed.
Pursuant to standing order 99A, the petition, having more than 500 signatories, was referred to the Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services.
The Clerk having announced that the terms of the petitions would be recorded in Hansard and referred to the appropriate ministers for response pursuant to standing order 100, the petitions were received.
Motion to take note of petitions
MADAM SPEAKER: Pursuant to standing order 98A, I propose the question:
That the petitions so lodged be noted.
Transport Canberra—bus terminus—petition 18-20
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (9.35): I have presented a petition signed by 175 Canberra residents who want this government to understand how deeply frustrated they are with the recent changes to the bus terminus located near their homes in Fraser. We often hear the Minister for Transport assure us that the new transport network is better for almost everyone. However, those who have signed this petition disagree, and I am pleased to make sure that their voices can be heard.
Sadly, they would like to have been heard before waking up one day to the noisy idling and coming and going of not 40 buses a day, but a staggering 173 buses per day. Their voices have been literally silenced by the deafening reality of the life-disrupting noise that has come from the dramatic expansion of the bus terminus in their previously quiet suburban street, all of which happened without any warning or consultation whatsoever.
The government’s weak attempt at trying to reduce the noise has been to put up signs at the terminus. The signs state that drivers must turn off the bus engines if they are parking for more than five minutes. However, there is an exception. If the vehicle’s operating manual specifies a longer period, the engine can be allowed to idle for more than five minutes. I have recently been made aware that the new buses, all 40 of them, require 10 minutes to warm up the engine, so drivers of the new buses are unable to switch off the engine because they are exempt from the signs that the government have put up.
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