Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I have been conducting mobile offices in my electorate. Last week, at Mascot, Pagewood and Botany, I received numerous complaints from constituents regarding the Baird government's cuts to the 309, X09, 310 and X10 bus services from the south-east into the city. These are very popular bus routes, and I know this because, when I lived in William Street in Botany, that was the bus that I used to get to get into the city every morning to work. Most of the people that travel on that service get off after Central Station. Because of the plans to build the light rail to the eastern suburbs, the Baird government is cutting the vital part of that particular service, so that service will now terminate at Central: it will not continue on down Elizabeth Street to Circular Quay, as it has in the past, taking most of those commuters into the City.

This will be a massive inconvenience for many people in our community. It will add 20 minutes both ways to the bus journey. It is a big inconvenience in particular for the young, the elderly and the disabled. But it will not only inconvenience people but also increase the cost of commuting to and from work and school and into the City each day, because commuters will now have to get off the bus at Central and either get onto a train or get onto another bus service and again tag on with their Opal card if they are going to continue into the City.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the reason that the Baird government has given for the cut to this service is the work that is occurring along George Street in beginning to build the eastern suburbs light rail project. The thing about this is that that does not make any sense at all, because the 309, 310, X09 and X10 bus services do not go down George Street; they go down Elizabeth Street. So this has nothing to do with the work that is going on on George Street for the eastern suburbs light rail but everything to do with what Liberal governments do with public transport services, and that is to cut them. That is exactly what the Baird government is doing in this case. It is cutting the most vital part of that service, at a massive inconvenience to constituents in my community.

As a result of this and as a result of the complaints that I have had from constituents, I have written to the New South Wales transport minister and I have asked the minister to reconsider this bad decision and consider reinstalling those bus services. At the very least, the minister should consider offering free second rides to those people who are forced to change services at Central and get onto another service.