Alistair Coe, the Shadow Minister for Transport Services, has revealed the Stanhope-Gallagher Budget will potentially slug ordinary working families an extra $1169 per year for a total of $4480.

Case study: A Canberra family with a parent driving to work in Woden and one to Civic, and one child getting a bus to school and one getting a bus to CIT:

  Before 2009 Budget After 2009 Budget Increase
Parent (parking in Woden) $3.60 per day
$900 per year		 $6.00 per day
$1500 per year		 $2.40 per day
$600 per year
Parent (parking in Civic) $7.50 per day
$1875 per year		 $9.00 per day
$2250 per year		 $1.50 per day
$375 per year
Child (bus to and from CIT) $1.64 per day
$328 per year		 $2.45 per day
$490 per year		 $0.81 per day
$162 per year
Child (bus to and from school) $1.04 per day
$208 per year		 $1.20 per day
$240 per year		 $0.16 per day
$32 per year
Total $14.38 per day
$3311 per year		 $19.25 per day
$4480 per year		 $4.87 per day
$1169 per year

 Assumptions: One child buys Faresaver 10 tickets for 5 days per week, 40 weeks per year; One child buys 4 school term tickets, Parents work 5 days per week for 50 weeks per year

The increase for the family above could be worse if they parked in the Marcus Clarke St car park that went from $5 to $9 per day.

The new financial year brings about substantial increases in the cost of parking and the cost of buses. We heard that 773 parking spots will be hit by an increase of 67% or 80% bringing about an additional $600 to $1000 tax on those Canberra families.

“Mr Stanhope calls himself the “Mayor of Canberra” and is the Minister for Transport, yet he has been unable to deliver a strategic approach for Canberra’s transport needs. There is nothing strategic about substantially increasing the cost of parking at the same time as substantially increasing bus fares,” said Mr Coe.

“In addition, there are still significant missing links in the cycle path network and much of the off-road paths are in desperate need for maintenance.

“Mr Stanhope must explain the rationale for his above inflation increases and stop treating Canberra commuters with contempt by hitting them with ‘shoot from the hip’ cash grabs,” Mr Coe said.