Sitting through last week’s transport debate in the ACT Legislative Assembly, what stands out isn’t just disagreement over buses or fares.
It’s something deeper, and more concerning: a political culture that has become far more comfortable explaining why things can’t be done than actually doing them.
Case in point: last week, the Transport Minister encouraged Canberrans to use public transport more during the fuel crisis, while simultaneously refusing to make it free because he’s worried too many people might catch the bus.
The message we are hearing is completely incoherent. We’re told we need to drive less, to rely more on public transport, to be part of the solution to congestion and climate change.
But when it comes to making that shift possible, making buses free, frequent, and genuinely accessible, the answer is hesitation. Caveats. Limits. Excuses about capacity, cost, and risk.
Over the past few decades, governments haven’t just made individual bad decisions.
They’ve internalised a way of thinking that treats ambition as dangerous and public investment as something to be contained rather than expanded.
The result is a kind of permanent caution, where the role of government is no longer to lead or deliver, but to manage expectations downward.
This situation is something I know many Canberrans have felt the impact of. They feel it when services don’t improve, even as the need grows.
They feel it when bold ideas are dismissed before they’re even seriously considered.
And they feel it when responsibility is pushed back onto them – change your behaviour, lower your expectations, accept the limits – while government steps away from its own capacity to act.
So when politicians wonder why trust is eroding, why people are disengaging, why younger generations in particular are starting to question whether the system works at all, they don’t need to look very far.
Because the crisis isn’t just about transport, it’s about a government that has slowly stopped believing in its own ability to deliver.
It’s on all of us, Greens, people of any political persuasion, and the broader public, to keep the pressure on, because sooner or later those cracks have to give way to real change.
