Page 4407 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have a range of strategies in place, and we have the runs on the board. We are the only Government that has reduced the cost of public transport in this Territory.
Mr De Domenico: Will Mr Berry be happy with all these negotiations you are having with the TWU?
MR CONNOLLY: When you people were in government you conspicuously failed to deliver. Your then leader, possibly your future leader, Mr Kaine, was the Treasurer and Chief Minister. He currently is your economics spokesperson because it seems that that job eludes the Leader of the Opposition. He delivered the highest ever ACTION subsidy. This Government is on track with a budget reduction strategy for ACTION that will give us a level of subsidy that is comparable with the Australian average. We have the runs on the board.
MR WESTENDE (3.51): Madam Speaker, I would like to follow on from Mr De Domenico's line. Let us take a hard look at some of the facts about Canberra's public transport system. Here I interpose for a minute. The Minister quoted some figures from Trends and the red book, but those figures are over 12 months old. Minister, 1992 is history. We should be looking to the future. New South Wales and Victoria are acting; here we are talking about it. The Minister quoted a figure on trams in Victoria. Victoria, because of the past, has over 100 more trams than they need. Maybe we have 100 more buses than we need, because the Travers Morgan report says, on page 7, that one of the significant factors of cost is ACTION's one driver, one bus practice. Maybe, if we could get rid of that practice, we might be able to save some buses.
With a population of about 300,000, Canberra households, of which there are 103,000, subsidise ACTION, on my calculations, something like $700 a year, not the $580 that the Minister quoted. During the 1992-93 financial year ACTION, on average, travelled 42,294 kilometres per bus, and carried something in the order of 24 million people. Once again, to me that does not equate with the figures that the Minister uses in the equation of 24 million people, and the deficit during the 1992-93 financial year of some $50m.
I do not think it is just a matter of drivers, technicians or other people. We have to look at some of the practices that they use. I am told that when a bus had a flat tyre it used to be towed back to the workshop. Now, because of so-called cost savings, the driver is instructed to drive back to the depot, ruining the casing, ruining the tube and, in some cases, even the rim, at a total cost of some $700. To send out a tow truck would have cost about $100. It is the accumulation of those sorts of acts that has given ACTION the cost structure that it has.
I have some experience in business matters and in my opinion it would be best to compartmentalise ACTION. ACTEW has divided Canberra into regions - north, south and so on. It works very well. Not only does each region look after its own affairs but they strive against one another competitively and therefore achieve better results. Let us combine all the different sections of ACTION - for example, mechanical, maintenance, stores, drivers and administration - split them up into geographical areas and give them targets. Give them incentives. Consider even management buy-out and profit sharing; maybe even give them part ownership as an additional incentive. It was done by the MET in Victoria only some eight or nine months ago and it works extremely well. You would be surprised at the difference it makes.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .