Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to raise an issue that is rapidly becoming one of great frustration for parents and schoolchildren in my electorate of Canning—that is, parents getting their young children to and from school safely and reliably on a school bus. The school bus issue has not simply been limited to one school or service in Canning. Shortly I will outline some specific areas where services are either nonexistent or downright inadequate. The state Labor government’s noncommittal and threatening attitude towards schoolchildren throughout the region has become abundantly apparent—an attitude that Premier Alan Carpenter’s ministry seems unwilling to change. Students in the area should be entitled to the same services as other Western Australian schoolchildren—and as taxpayers their parents have earnt it.

In the Peel region there have been significant problems with securing dedicated school bus services and ensuring that, where there is a school bus operating, children are allowed on it. This is an area to which families are moving each week. With a growth rate of 4.6 per cent, Mandurah is among the top five regional growth areas in Australia. The population is 95,000 and rising. This has bought with it dramatic increases in enrolments at local schools. In fact in recent months community discussion has put the issue of building another high school back on the agenda. I have been approached by many of my constituents, parents of primary schoolchildren who have, for the last 18 months, been seeking a dedicated orange school bus service for the Dawesville Catholic Primary School, a school in Mandurah’s southern suburbs. Without a suitable school bus service running to the Catholic primary school, and with a government school just up the road, traffic congestion around the schools at drop-off and pick-up is not only time consuming but also incredibly dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. There are more than 750 students between these two schools and there are at least 675 vehicles a day using Ocean Road, with several of these being heavy vehicles.

I have visited the school in the afternoon, at school’s end, and have seen firsthand that the traffic in the area is incredibly dangerous for young students. I have met with the principal of the Catholic primary school, Steve Dowie, and parents, who have led a strong campaign spearheaded by Merome Lawson and Barbara Lebreton to obtain a suitable bus after there were numerous expressions of interest. I have been presented with a petition containing more than 500 signatures calling for improved bus transport services to the school area. This is a very strong reflection that a school bus is needed and would be used.

The token gesture by the state’s Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, Alannah MacTiernan, was a single public bus service for students living north of the Dawesville Cut as far as Halls Head and those living south to Lake Clifton. There have been some cases of students using that service being forced to see inappropriate behaviour by other public patrons on the bus. In any case the service is completely incompatible with school hours, having children arriving at school before 8 am and with no way of getting home in the afternoon. It is simply not good enough. Not only does this put additional pressure on teachers, who are forced to be responsible for these children from early in the morning, but also young students are simply left stranded in the afternoon.

My state government colleagues, the member for Dawesville, Dr Kim Hames, and the member for Murray, Mr Murray Cowper, joined me for a meeting with senior officials of the Public Transport Authority recently to discuss the matter and urge the minister to provide an orange school bus service to the area. It was abundantly clear at that meeting that there was simply no room for negotiation on the part of the PTA or Minister MacTiernan’s office. My calls for improved services, and those of my colleagues, were simply met with a flat, ‘No, and the reason is that it’s too expensive.’ Now would be a good time to point out that the state Treasurer, Mr Eric Ripper, handed down his budget—which has been described as a pedestrian and unimaginative budget—in the same week as the federal budget. As the government has a surplus of $2 billion, parents of the Peel region should rightly find it very hard to accept that the government cannot afford one more school bus. It is no secret that they are flush with cash. It is not unreasonable to expect that a few dollars go back into basic community services such as a school bus service to get kids to and from school safely each day. The Peel region has certainly contributed to the government’s surplus through millions and millions of dollars of stamp duty and land tax, particularly on houses and land in the area.

In response to my colleagues and I drawing attention to the issue and the strong campaign led by the P&C, the minister grandstanded in March. She said that Dawesville would gain an additional bus route and more frequent services as a result of the Perth-Mandurah railway opening in July this year, giving parents a glimmer of hope for the third term. She said, and I quote:

... there will be more frequent services including special morning and afternoon deviations for students attending the Dawesville schools ...

The minister’s comments can only be seen as a cynical and cruel hoax on two fronts. Firstly, it should come as no surprise to Western Australian taxpayers that, only weeks after declaring that new services would be in place when the long-awaited railway line opened, the minister has confirmed that the Mandurah railway line is running months behind schedule. This has shattered the hopes of Dawesville parents of having safe and reliable school transportation in time for the third term. Secondly, the more frequent services the minister proclaimed were in fact already planned. They are not dedicated school bus services but merely additional public routes to service the new Mandurah Transit Station. In any case, upon examining the proposed deviations to the service for those students attending Dawesville schools, parents have been shunted with the proposed routes not deviating into Pleasant Grove. This affects several families living in that area. In order for the Pleasant Grove children to catch the school bus they would have to cross a four-lane highway and dodge traffic doing 90 kilometres an hour. This is not just a road; it is a major highway linking Perth to the south-west of Western Australia with heavy traffic and haulage vehicles. The safety of students should be the foremost priority now, not when the minister finally finishes her railway. Is it going to take a tragic accident before the minister will get a proper school bus on the road? The issue is not simply one of securing new services but in fact of ensuring current orange school bus services—as the state government has revealed plans to withdraw existing school bus services over the next five years and charge some parents an interim fare of 50c.

In late March, in a scene that can only be described as farcical, several children with some as young as three years old were refused access to their regular school bus from Furnissdale. The bus simply shut its doors on the young children, some of whom had been catching the same bus for more than five years. More than 20 families in the Furnissdale, Barragup and Murray River areas were protesting about the plans to scrap the service by not paying the 50c fare. The PTA threatened to call in the Department for Community Development and the police if the parents delivered their children to the bus stop, and if the children attempted to catch the bus. Targeting innocent children should never be an option.

A day before the incident children were sent home with an unaddressed note to their parents simply stating that their children would have to find their own way to school. The member for Murray described the scene as a total abuse of power and a Mexican stand-off. Government authorities intimidating young children and using them to achieve a means is the lowest of lows. On that day children were left sitting on the side of the road, some in tears, for more than an hour until the PTA realised the embarrassment of the situation and, with the local media on the spot, called the bus back to collect the children.

A similar situation ensued the following morning with PTA officials standing guard as the regular school bus simply drove past the students standing at the bus stop. After two hours of being stranded it was discovered that the school bus did return to the site where the children were left, only to hide around the corner. When questioned about whether the bus was awaiting instruction from PTA officials on site, the bus driver said, ‘Yes.’ Once again the PTA conceded and agreed to take the children to school.

For the parents of the area, the issue is not one of money but of principle. If the parents pay the 50c fee they are essentially endorsing the government’s plans to phase out the service altogether. With their petitions, protests and refusals by the PTA to meet with them, the parents have been left with no option but to take a stand.

A parent, Craig Waterman, whose six children catch the Furnissdale service, said that this is a lot deeper than paying 50c. It is about them getting rid of the school bus services altogether. Properties in this area will lose tens of thousands of dollars if there is no school bus service for residents. For dual-income parents this bus service is the only way their children can get to school. There will also be major environmental impacts from the new cars that will be put on the roads to make up for the loss of the buses.

In another instance the school bus service for students living in Serpentine Jarrahdale and attending Pinjarra Senior High School has been threatened with cancellation, with the PTA suggesting the option of students moving school altogether to the Armadale Senior High School. This is another completely ludicrous statement by the PTA with it being, in most cases, detrimental to their education for students to relocate whilst undertaking their TEE.

There was also some doubt initially as to whether there would be a school bus service available to more than 100 students living in Byford and travelling to the Serpentine Jarrahdale Grammar School in Mundijong. However, I am pleased to say that despite the many other shortcomings at least this one issue has been resolved thanks to Tony Simpson, the member for Serpentine Jarrahdale.

Overall, the unavailability of school bus services and the cancellation of existing services has an abundance of repercussions on the local community. Foremost, the safety of young children is at stake. Currently students are battling to cross busy roads, parents are forced to drive their children at peak periods in congested suburban-like streets and, as I have outlined for Furnissdale, the PTA is simply not afraid to leave children on the side of the road, which is a disgrace.

As Mr Waterman pointed out there is the environmental impact of having more cars on the road et cetera. More cars on the road means not only heavier traffic but also increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Parents are also experiencing unnecessary stress over a matter that should never have come to an issue. Many families, particularly the dual-income families, are forced to adjust their working hours or in some cases resign altogether in order to make drop-offs and pick-ups.

All this while Minister MacTiernan and the PTA turn a blind eye, simply ignoring the issue, ignoring the safety of our children and ignoring the very loud calls of parents who are fed up with the Carpenter government’s disinterest and disgraceful scare tactics. Parents and children of Canning deserve much better. (Time expired)