Page 3736 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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MR CONNOLLY: The Liberals have this nice little ideological assumption that contracting out means that it is done cheaper. The contracted out bus services are massively subsidised. The ratepayer is massively subsidising the contracted out one or the publicly operated one.
Mr Humphries: They are all subsidised.
MR CONNOLLY: That is right. Mr Humphries is learning. It makes little difference whether you are operating a public bus system or paying somebody - putting money in their pocket - for them to operate their private bus system. The goal for the ACT is to reduce the overall cost. Mr Cornwell points out that there is a massive cost to the community in the school bus system. What would he have us do? Would he have us reduce the services? I can just imagine the reaction of the Independent Schools Association, because it is the private schools that, by and large, get these services, and some of the most expensive ones are the school services that run from outlying suburbs to the grammar schools. I would be personally quite happy to stop them, but I can imagine the outcry from the community. So we obviously cannot do that.
The other issue he points out, and this has been pointed out repeatedly, is one of the areas where - I will be frank, and I will go into this in more detail - ACTION does not compare well with other public transport authorities, and that is the amount that is returned through the cash box, the level of fares. The Industry Commission says, and other studies have said it, that the fares are too low. Indeed, Mr De Domenico put out a press release on one of the last comparative surveys. I am not sure whether it was the early Industry Commission report or whether it was the red book - the government trading enterprises performance indicators - but one of these surveys showed that our fare levels were very low. We had a "Shock, horror; ACTION is inefficient; its fares are too low" press release from the Liberal Party, followed a couple of weeks later by a "Shock, horror; Government increases ACTION fares" press release.
You make your facile little comments and your platitudes pour out from the Leader of the Opposition. Only yesterday she was criticising us for a hike in bus fares last year. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot ask me a question saying, "Your public transport system is inefficient because you do not charge enough for the school kids to travel on the buses", and then put out press releases criticising us for hikes in ACTION bus fares. The Liberal Party has to attempt to exercise a little bit of consistency here - unless it is going to be honest with us all and say that it is not interested in consistency; it is purely playing to the lowest common denominator and promising all things to all people.
MR CORNWELL: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Could I have some comparative costs, Minister - you might like to take this on notice - on contracting out of school services as opposed to ACTION services?
MR CONNOLLY: I am sure that we can break down some of those costs. If you had asked that during the Estimates Committee we would have taken it on notice and provided it.
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