Ms BURNET (Clark) – Honourable Speaker, I will make my comments brief, but I’m very pleased to be able to speak to this matter of public importance and we’ve heard some some cracking contributions already. One of the concerns I have as as part of my portfolio responsibilities is access for young people to proper and suitable public transport. We know, and we’ve heard from various young people, that sometimes they cannot get to school because there are no buses to take them. They cannot access their education because there is not the public transport in place, which should be in place – they live close enough to to public transport routes and and bus services – but those bus services have been sliced, cut out, and they haven’t been reinstated.
This is a huge shame. Not only do they have lack of access, but sometimes they cannot access bus services because they don’t have the suitable passes. I know the former transport minister, Mr Abetz when he was in that role, looked at some of those concerns for bus passes for students, but students should have the right to access good, suitable public transport and this is not what we’re seeing. We’re seeing services not replaced when they were cut some time ago.
Our Metro services are being run into the ground and it’s not good enough. It’s not serving those young people who should have a bright future and who should have access to their education and other services they need to access. It’s a shame and an indictment on this government. It should be that we have a robust Metro service that is properly funded and suitable to serve those young people.
