Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates

Mr ANGUS (Forest Hill) (10:18): I rise also to make a contribution on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Report on the 2019–20 Budget Estimates from October last year. I want to look today at a matter in relation to disability access on trams, because this document raises that particular matter in chapter 6, on page 117, where it talks about the key findings in relation to the Department of Transport. It says:

Approximately 27% of tram stops have level access to facilitate disability access to the network. Work is underway to upgrade ageing infrastructure, however, delays in obtaining council approvals have been cited as reasons for delays in meeting outcome measures.

That is what it says there. If we turn to page 126, it goes on to say:

The 2019–20 Budget allocates ‘$163 million to purchase 10 new E-Class trams and upgrade 10 Z-Class trams’ …

and so on. It goes on to talk about the importance of all Victorians being able to access public transport within the system.

But the point I really want to make this morning is the fact that this is again mere lip-service, because I note that on 29 October 2019 I raised in this place in relation to a constituency question the issue of the route 75 tram, which runs out to my electorate. It is one of the longest tramlines in Melbourne, and it goes out to Vermont South, where it terminates. With much fanfare, a number of years ago that had a whole range of so-called disability access measures and raised tram stops put on the extension, particularly from Middleborough Road to further out. It has this tremendous new infrastructure, but what is the catch, you might ask—

Mr R Smith interjected.

Mr ANGUS: Thank you, member for Warrandyte. The catch is there are no disability-friendly trams on route 75, so there are no low-floor trams. It was with much fanfare, as I said before, the so-called super-stops were opened and what have you, but they are absolutely useless for someone with a disability, someone who is infirm, someone with a pram—someone who does not have the ability to get on a tram with any ease.

The point I am highlighting here is the fact that we see in this report more lip-service to these sorts of matters from the government, but when the rubber hits the road—and the tintacks side of it for my constituents—it is just that: it is total lip-service, and it does not provide the service that is so needed by my constituents, particularly those that have got disabilities that restrict them from going up stairs in that manner.

The report goes on to talk about allocating $3 million in 2019–20 to the tram stop accessibility strategy initiative and about investigating options to streamline the design and construction of these. But the point I am making is that is useless unless you have got the trams to go on the routes that can service the people getting on at those stops. The government is trying to cover up what is really going on in terms of disability access by saying, ‘Well, we’re building these’ or ‘We’re proposing to build the super-stops’, but the reality is that unless you have got the trams that people could use the super-stops to get onto, it is a complete and utter waste of time. The answer to the question I got on 10 December 2019 says in part:

Low floor trams comprise around 37 per cent of the tram fleet.

Then it goes on and makes the ultimate excuse that, because there are only a limited number of low-floor trams, it requires a, quote, ‘careful balancing of capacity across the network’. That is absolutely of no consolation to my constituents or to any other constituents of other members in this place that are faced with a situation where they might have a great super-stop which looks fantastic but they have no way of getting on the tram.

Really the issue here is that we have got the government trying to throw money at certain aspects of it but not looking at the holistic solving of the problem. And that is what we are ending up with; we are ending up with a half-baked solution, which is so typical of this government in many, many areas but certainly in this area of public transport. Despite the flowery words that the committee has included in here as quotes from the government and the departments, it is not solving the problem for my constituents and for many other constituents on other routes throughout Melbourne that are unable to access disability-friendly trams.