Page 4403 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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In summary, Mr Deputy Speaker, it is not just the Opposition that has been calling for micro-economic reforms; it is not just the Industry Commission report commissioned by the Federal Labor Government, or the Travers Morgan report commissioned by this Government. Nor is it just the Transport Workers Union. Everybody in this town realises, or ought to realise, that there are millions and millions of dollars of savings to be made at ACTION buses. People should get around a table and talk about those savings. I think that the Minister will have the support of the Opposition and all other members in the house if he does continue to make these savings. I suggest to the Minister that, if he is being manacled and shackled by Mr Berry, the Industrial Relations Minister, as we are told by the Transport Workers Union, it is up to him to make the appropriate changes.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (3.36): Mr De Domenico keeps coming into this place and talking about ACTION buses. I would have thought we had talked about it often enough for him to learn something, but that seems not to be the case. His opening remark was that everybody is talking about the need for micro-economic reform in public transport. Well, on that, he is right. The difference, though, is that this Labor Government is acting and delivering on reform in public transport, not just blathering about it.
I will not go to figures of interests associated with the Labor Party; I will go to Access Economics, which does a lot of consultancy work for the Liberal Party. They are the economic consultants that the Liberal Party trot out whenever they need to get an analysis of a Treasury view. In some work that was done and published in the Advance Bank Trends magazine in July of 1992 there was a very informative graph which I have referred to before but which I am happy to refer to again and to table. It showed ACTION's per capita deficit and it showed a remarkable increase to the record worst ever performance of ACTION under the period of the Liberal Government. In the final analysis it is the Treasurer who keeps Ministers honest, who keeps them working on budgetary matters. Under Mr Kaine's stewardship, then your Chief Minister and now your Treasury spokesperson, ACTION achieved its record level of inefficiency. Congratulations, Liberals; you should be proud of your record on micro-economic reform!
Mr Deputy Speaker, rather than blathering about extremist rhetoric and a track record of inattention and non-performance on reform, this Labor Government has got on with the task of addressing the underlying problems within ACTION. We acknowledge that we have to move in the direction of reform in ACTION. ACTION is not, however, the basket case that the Opposition spokesperson would have us believe. My challenge to compare real performance on reducing subsidies rather than rhetoric and what we plan to do in public transport reform remains valid.
Mr De Domenico quoted some bold figures of what it is hoped to have achieved in other States, but we are already on target. We already have achieved significant savings on the ACTION operating deficit. We achieved $2m and more last year. We achieved $300,000 more than we were targeted for. This year our budget figures are locked in for a reduction of $4m. So we are well and truly on target. The equivalent of a $10m subsidy reduction in the ACT for other States would be far in advance of what they are achieving in comparison with the ACT's $49m deficit in 1991-92.
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