Firstly, there were two worrying developments federally this past week. Tanya Plibersek, Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, stopped a coal mine in Central Queensland going ahead, thus sending all the wrong messages to investors and making it harder for 300 million Indians to be brought out of poverty, not to mention threatening our energy security.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong announced, of all things, an Australian Ambassador for Diversity. That news will have them all dancing in the streets of Tehran and other foreign capitals in the region – I don’t think! A journalist should ask, for starters, our new Ambassador to define for us what a woman is, and also how much is this costing the taxpayer.
Neither announcement could be said to be in Australia’s best interests.
Back in Canberra, Planning Minister Mick Gentleman’s recent announcement that all new apartment blocks in the ACT will have less parking available is disturbing, to say the least. The reason given is that people living in their apartments will not need a car.
Now, I like public transport. I regularly catch a bus, and also park and ride. These days, there is little parking in Civic. I also catch the tram, and love to travel by train to see family and friends in Sydney, Wollongong, and elsewhere in NSW. I even took the train to Melbourne last year for a veterans’ rugby game. In my view, we should ditch stage 2 of the tram, and work out better and more cost-effective ways of getting more people into public transport.
However, I’ve got news for Mr Gentleman. Even if we had a better public transport system, and whilst the number of people taking public transport is now up to about 8 per cent of Canberrans, Canberrans still depend on having access to a car. The tram is not the answer. It can’t go everywhere, and is slow, overpriced to build, and 19th century technology. Buses also can’t go everywhere. Many people need to hop into their car to go to another part of Canberra for work purposes, and even people who live on public transport routes and usually take public transport need to go to an outer suburb to, for example, play sport or see friends and family.
Many people living in apartments like to go to the snow or the South Coast, and it is simply impossible to do so effectively by public transport.
This illogical proposed plan needs to be radically altered. One wonders why it was flagged in the first place. I suspect the developers might well have something to do with it, as fewer car spaces means it’s a lot cheaper for them to build the apartments, and thus increases their profit margins.
Despite the huge effort of the ACT Government to force people into public transport, the usage rates have not improved much in 30 years. In 1990, it was about 6 per cent. Canberrans love their cars, and for good reason, due to the design of the city. Bad call, Mick!
Editors note: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Canberra Daily.
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