Brisbane City Council has gone to war with the state government, accusing it of neglecting the capital’s bus network. Council says services will not cope with the increased demand from cheap fares to be introduced in August without more funding. But the Premier says it is all a negotiation tactic.
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00:00It's a good old-fashioned political bust-up.
00:0550 cent fares will be a 50 cent fail.
00:08When Brisbane residents are stranded at busway stations...
00:11The cheap public transport is one of the State Government's
00:14flagship cost-of-living measures,
00:17but there are concerns the network won't handle the demand.
00:20This will be one of the greatest public policy failings
00:23in Queensland's history.
00:25The City Council says Brisbane has 82,000 fewer bus services
00:30than a decade ago due to chronic underfunding
00:33by the Queensland Government.
00:35This isn't the first time I've been engaged with a local government
00:38that wants more money, and that's what's happening here.
00:40What we really need is a focus on making sure that buses
00:43are frequent and reliable
00:46and have the capacity to meet the growing region.
00:49The Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council
00:52have been negotiating behind closed doors for six weeks.
00:56Council wants a half a billion dollar investment
00:59in the bus network over five years,
01:02but the state has offered just 10 per cent of that.
01:05And we didn't want to go public with this,
01:07but on Friday they rejected our deal,
01:10and in fact they offered us $50 million in hush money
01:13for us to go away ahead of their election, a one-off payment.
01:16I wouldn't go reading too much into the argy-bargy
01:19of what is a negotiation.
01:21The rollout of the congestion-busting electric Metro fleet
01:25is also at risk, according to the Transport Chair.
01:28Brisbane Metro will be ready to start services by the end of this year,
01:32but not unless we get a new deal.
01:34The Metro is Brisbane City Council's flagship bus program,
01:38and if they haven't budgeted sufficiently for it to operate,
01:42then we will work with them to make sure that it can launch successfully.