“Had Steel shown a little humility he would have stood out as a potential chief minister. Instead, he remains a Labor hack, another hardliner, rather than as different, as caring and as a genuine and effective leader,” writes political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.

The MyWay+ debacle could have been turned into a positive for embattled Transport Minister Chris Steel. 

Instead, he has decided to rely on the old, tried and true, hardened Labor approach of “tough it out”.

This situation, disaster though it was, could have proved a bonus in standing for Minister Steel. 

However, he would have to have taken a different path. Admit the mistake, wear it and apologise to those in Canberra who were so adversely impacted by a bad decision. Instead, he missed the opportunity.

Had the minister shown a little humility, and taken a more sensible approach, he would have been seen as different and would have stood out from his colleagues as a potential chief minister. 

Instead, he remains as a Labor hack, another hardliner, rather than as different, as caring and as a genuine and effective leader.

What happened when Minister Steel impatiently pushed the go button on the transport system, ignoring advice that the MyWay+ was not yet completely ready? No apology! The system, it was argued, had “teething issues”… tough it out!

A decision was made by Transport Canberra that it was not necessary to engage an accessibility specialist before launching the MyWay+ system. A couple of examples of the problems when it began include people with visual impairment could not use the website and some people who are hard of hearing had difficulty understanding on-board announcements.

The decision taken by the transport minister flew in the face of the government’s own Disability Strategy 2024-2033 . For people with a disability, it is often even more important for public transport to provide helpful mobility access. 

There is now an attempt to resolve the “teething issues” with the appointment of Get Skilled Access, to conduct a comprehensive accessibility review to determine how to make the system compliant with the Disability Strategy. Ironically, this is the action that was declined by Transport Canberra in the lead up to MyWay+ in 2024.

The Assembly’s Inquiry into the Procurement and Delivery of MyWay+ is due to report on June 26. Although no report has been issued, evidence before the Committee of Inquiry has inflamed the non-government MLAs.

The Greens’ Jo Clay has responsibility for undertaking this inquiry in her role as Chair of The Standing Committee on Environment, Planning, Transport and City Services. 

Opposition Leader Leanne Castley points to a report that “was given to the minister two months before launch, identified four areas of serious concern about reliability and functionality, yet his response was to wait just two weeks and launch anyway”. 

She concluded her attack stating: “Minister Steel is developing quite a track record of mis-managing important projects on behalf of taxpayers”.

Independent Thomas Emerson noted “key principle in the ACT Disability Strategy 2024-2033, released last April, is ‘universal design’”. 

He added: “The strategy requires the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without need for adaptation or specialised design”. 

Perhaps more pointedly, Mr Emerson identified the strategy includes “for people with disability to have access to the same quality of service and barrier-free experience as the wider ACT community”. 

He argued that the MyWay+ has also breached multiple pieces of anti-discrimination legislation whereas “universal design would have prevented the disability discrimination that is inherent in how MyWay+ has been rolled out”.

Andrew Braddock, ACT Greens spokesperson for transport, was concerned that “despite promises to bring Canberra’s public transport network into the future with ‘seamless’ experience and ‘world-class’ capability, NEC and Transport Canberra agreed to reduce the functionality of the system ahead of launch and even described the system as a ‘minimum viable product’”.

He added: “It is insulting that our transport minister has such low standards for public transport in our city. Canberrans deserve the world-class system that they were promised”.

The political pain could have been avoided had Minister Steel owned his mistake from the beginning. He could have announced the appointment of Get Skilled Access to examine the inadequacies of the system, and also made clear his intention to implement the recommendations. 

Instead, Chris Steel has chosen to tough it out. Therefore, he wears the opprobrium of being responsible for a significant failure in supporting some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.