What’s in it for Yerrabi?

Putting your suburb first, was an initiative launched early in the campaign, which focused on the neglect of our suburbs by the current Labor/Greens government. My recent survey, Your Suburb, your say, highlighted that maintenance of our suburbs and parklands was the number one issue for the people of Yerrabi. As part of the initiative, a Canberra Liberals Government will invest $100 million of your rates into the neglected suburbs of Canberra.

Under this initiative, every single suburb in Yerrabi will be eligible for funding for a project that will directly benefit Yerrabi residents for a value between half and $2 million dollars. This means that you get to say where you want the money to be spent, whether on BBQs for your local parks, on playground equipment, we plan to listen to the community and hear what they want. Do you have something you want to see happen? Let me know, I would love to hear.

Making our city safer, was a policy platform I was pleased to announce at the start of August. Concerns about policing and safety in the ACT ranked second in my Your Suburb, your say survey. Community safety is a grave concern to everyone I speak with, and an area of significant failure here in the ACT. And rightly so. We now have the lowest spending on police services, and the lowest number of police, per person than any other jurisdiction in Australia.

Fewer resources for crime prevention and the decriminalisation of hard drugs have led to the worst clearance rates for property crime, and the lowest police satisfaction rating in the nation. And the government has shown time and again that they do not care. When I tabled a motion in the Assembly on behalf of the ACT Police and the Canberran community, asking for an inquiry into the issues confronting our police, it was voted down by both Labor and the Greens. A Canberra Liberal’s Government will prioritise the community safety, employ more police, invest in infrastructure, and bring back laws in line with community expectations.

In Yerrabi, this will look like a stand-alone police station in Gungahlin, as we transition the Joint Emergency Services Centre to single user building, the ACT Police. And more capacity at the Gungahlin Police Station, will mean more police on the beat – patrolling areas often targeted by criminals, such as Mitchell and Gungahlin, and new suburbs where building is going on.

Building an education system that is better for students, better for teachers

Canberrans should have access to the best education system in Australia, whether you choose a private or public school. But I know from your feedback that many of our schools are overcrowded, with classes in libraries, and students in temporary transportable classrooms.

The Canberra Liberals will prioritise all our students having access to a well-maintained, fit for purpose, and safe learning environment. Beginning with an audit of all infrastructure, they will then deliver a program of building maintenance and improvements. This will mean no more broken heaters in winter, or not-working air conditioners on a hot summers day.

But Canberra also sends a significant proportion of students to private schools, with 7 of them in Yerrabi. But the schools’ systems tell us that it’s not enough, and have struggled to find appropriate land to meet the growing demand in the Yerrabi area. When in Government, the Canberra Liberals will conduct a stocktake of available land in Gungahlin for nongovernment schools.

The Canberra Liberals are committed to supporting both government and the nongovernment school sector to ensure parents and carers have real choice when it comes to what works best for their child.

You can read more here.

A Canberra Liberals Government will help you afford your everyday expenses. For my constituents of Yerrabi, this means $150 back to school vouchers for mums and dads doing it tough. This will help you with the cost of your child going back to school.

There are also $100 Creative & Active kids vouchers – supporting not only you in paying the expenses for your child doing after school or Saturday, but these also support our local clubs and associations. Some of these have been doing it tough since COVID, so your voucher will help them too.

There are also rebates for every household in Yerrabi, for Vehicle Registration and your electricity bill. I know myself that every bit helps, and these rebates will help reduce the burden of some of our everyday expenses.

It’s a $65 million dollar package for all Canberrans, that will provide much needed relief for you and your family.

To read more, click here.

Yerrabi people have been telling me for the last 4 years that there is a problem with our bus system. Not enough school buses, and those that are in place don’t go close enough to their kids’ schools, leaving young children to either walk some distance or cross major roads by themselves.

And I am also aware that there are many issues with traveling on the weekend. If you work in Civic or Fyshwick and need to travel there on a Saturday, there are often no buses, or none in a timely fashion.

Unbelievably, many of our newer suburbs, such as Throsby, Taylor and Jacka have no bus services at all!

These are just some of the issues that will be addressed for Yerrabi people in the Canberra Liberals Transport policy. What is in the transport policy for the people of Yerrabi? The Canberra Liberals will:

• Introduce a new seven day timetable, removing the 2 hour waits on local services on weekends;
• Restore dedicated school bus services to local and major schools in the region;
• Reinstate Xpress bus services from the suburbs during peak hours to the City and Parliamentary Triangle;
• Better bus routes to new suburbs including Throsby, Taylor and Jacka;
• Introduce further bus priority measures on Gundaroo Drive to speed up Rapid R8 journeys between Belconnen and Gungahlin; and
• Trial On-Demand local area services in identified regions.

There are several other policy initiatives including fair changes, with weekly limits, free travel for concession card holders, students and more. You can read more about all the transport initiatives here.