Page 2459 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mrs Grassby. Members, could I remind you of the requirements of standing order 39.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, we have a level of staff to vehicle in the ACT which is the second lowest in Australia, a hallmark of an organisation which is getting more and more efficient by the day. Madam Speaker, we have a rate of boardings in the ACT which is the second highest of metropolitan transit authorities. The nonsense that the Opposition - - -
Mr De Domenico: That has nothing to do with the school bus service?
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, it does have to do with the school buses. Schoolchildren use buses, Mr De Domenico. If they did not, they may not get to school, Mr De Domenico. Therefore your nonsense that nobody uses the buses and we should get rid of them overlooks that large and important group of Canberra people who go to school. We have a high level of usage of our public transport authorities.
We are on track, Madam Speaker, to achieve our $10m savings target over three years. Our forward estimates show that we are tracking on target, a public transport rate of subsidy in the ACT of $150 per head, which will put us bang on target with what the Grants Commission say the Australian average should be. At the moment the level of subsidy in the ACT from this year's Grants Commission is $167 per head. That compares with $207 in Melbourne, under a Liberal administration, and $189 in Sydney, under a Liberal administration. Public transport per capita subsidies in the ACT are less than New South Wales and less than Melbourne, although Melbourne is a bad example. Madam Speaker, the nonsense - - -
Mrs Carnell: But we do not have any trains. We have only buses.
MR CONNOLLY: The Liberals are learning. The Liberals are learning every day. They have just worked that out. Congratulations, Mrs Carnell. They do not go, "Choo, choo, choo"; they are in fact buses. They are big orange things.
Mr De Domenico: No-one is on them during the day.
MR CONNOLLY: There are schoolchildren on them, Mr De Domenico, as you jocularly interjected a moment ago. We have a level of boardings per head of population which is the second highest in metropolitan Australia.
Madam Speaker, the area where ACTION appears poorly on the national survey in the government trading enterprises performance indicators, which I would recommend the Opposition read because again they might learn something, is the level of fare box return. ACTION does not show up well on the basis of the level of cost recovery from the fare box. We currently are running at 22.4 per cent. The Liberals said 18 per cent in their press release the other day, but they got that wrong too. A figure of 22.4 per cent is not good enough. This year it will be 24 per cent and we are on track to achieve 30 per cent. The extraordinary standards of the Liberals, who put out a presser the day before yesterday criticising ACTION for not recovering enough through the fare box and put out a presser a couple of weeks ago criticising the Government for putting up bus fares, is fairly breathtaking. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot criticise
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