Page 3735 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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Further to that, we provided a sum of money in our budget - about $100,000, from memory, or it may be less than that - for plantings in Lake Tuggeranong. Those plantings, it is believed, will help to reduce the incidence, absorbing, as they will, some of the nutrients that come into the lake. We are also providing continuing comment in the media, pointing out to people that they need to be careful with the top dressing they do in Canberra. We are in regular contact with authorities in New South Wales because it appears that most of the nutrients in Lake Burley Griffin come from that source, and recently there was an outbreak in one of the tributaries of the Molonglo River in New South Wales.
We are looking closely at Lake Ginninderra. We have spent millions of dollars in one measure that will substantially reduce the likelihood of blue-green algae in that lake. Those millions of dollars are in the holding dams upstream on Ginninderra Creek. Those dams, like Lake Tuggeranong, will become recreation areas in Gungahlin; but they are designed as a measure to prevent pollutants getting into Lake Ginninderra, further downstream in Ginninderra Creek, and through into the Murrumbidgee.
Further than that, we are actively monitoring where these outbreaks occur, to see whether we can find any pattern both in where they occur and in the times they occur. It is a problem that will come up this summer; I have little doubt about that. I have an anxiety, as I said at the outset, that it might be a worse season for us than some we have experienced in the past, based on the history over winter. We are doing all we can to protect our waterways and to protect the Murrumbidgee and the Murray.
I could expand further on what is happening with ACTEW and the work they are doing to reduce the nutrient level going through. There have been some very significant changes in the way ACTEW has done its work. While members may be aware of the holding dam that is being built, they may not be so aware of the technical changes they have made to reduce the level of phosphorus and to change the ratios. I cannot get into too much scientific detail, but that is also a very important factor. That does not affect the ACT, but it is going to have a remarkable effect in New South Wales.
School Bus Services
MR CORNWELL: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services. I note that the Government's submission to the Industry Commission inquiry into urban transport stated that the deficit per passenger on ACTION buses ranged from $1.20 to $10 on some school services; school services recovered less than 10 per cent of their operating costs; schoolchildren make up a quarter of ACTION passengers; the subsidy to ACTION for schoolchildren's transport is $6.6m, while the cost of providing this service is more than $12m; and the Government does contract out some school bus routes. As you have already introduced some efficiencies in contracting out for school services, when does the Government intend to expand these contracting out initiatives to improve ACTION's performance in the cost-effective provision of school services?
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