Port Douglas campaigner to start petition into examining social, economic benefits of regular public transport
Public Transport
Public transport campaigner David Haratsis will start a petition to Douglas Shire Council asking the state government to closely examine the wider benefits of a regular bus service within the region and connecting Douglas to Cairns.
Mr Haratsis has held a meeting – in a personal capacity and not that of representing Council – with Mayor Cr Michael Kerr, who told Mr Haratsis that he would support regular public transport in the region.
Now he intends to start a petition, and has encouraged supporters to get behind it once it is published within a few days on his Facebook page, ‘Public TransPORT’.
“It’s not the matter of the fares being allowed for the system to break even or run at a profit,” he said. “You need to look at the socio-economic benefits.
“For example how do kids from Mossman go to university if they don’t have a car or don’t have enough funds to do it?
“How many kids are put off going to university or told not to go because they can’t afford it or the parents can’t afford it? How many people can’t get to jobs because of a lack of available transport?
“Socio-economic benefits can also include benefits to health, both by the point of view of transporting people but also from the point of view of having less accidents, less fatalities, less injuries, less car write-offs.”
Petition would need strong support
Mr Haratsis believes that if he can demonstrate the public demand for regular transport in the region by way of a well-backed petition to start with, the state government will have to take his campaign more seriously.
“Even with privatisation in this country and others, it is still ultimately the responsibility of the state, and they prop it up. They just get other operators in to run it and they pay them for it,” he said.
“Public transport provides broader community benefits that do not result in an instantaneous profit which is all the private sector is after, and fair enough, they’re in business, they want to make a profit.”
“I really see this as a build it and they will come type of operation. I have no doubt that the need is there. I have no doubt that the desire of the community to have it is there.”
But with Douglas Shire Council as the region’s largest community representative body – Mr Haratsis still faces the hurdle of first convincing Council to vote in favour of taking his petition to the state government.