Page 4409 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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MR LAMONT (4.01): Madam Speaker, I was prepared to let Mr Westende continue.
Mr Westende: I had a few pages to go.
MR LAMONT: That is fine. I would be prepared to let you continue. It would make as much sense as the rest of what you have said this afternoon. I say that because you are wrong in fact, but not in philosophy. I will return to that in a moment. You are wrong in fact. You made a point about it costing $700 to go out to change a tyre on an ACTION bus. That is absolutely ridiculous. You should sack whoever is giving you your information. Get rid of them. They are leading you down the garden path. That is not the case.
Mr De Domenico: No, it is $698.
MR LAMONT: That is not the case. It is obvious that you have no understanding at all of the way ACTION operates. But I can appreciate that.
The first part of the topic of the MPI this afternoon refers to "The need for micro-economic reform in Canberra's public transport sector". This is the same bleat that we have heard from Mr De Domenico since Mr De Domenico was elected. This is the first thing. Let us have a look at the definitions and at how the definitions change. The definition changes when you look at what micro-economic reform means on this side of the house and what it means in a section of that side of the house. You could hear it coming through quite clearly in every word that Mr De Domenico said and, indeed, in the thrust of what Mr Westende said. Micro-economic reform to the Liberals is, "Sell it off to mates". It means that you privatise the profitable parts of public transport and you socialise the losses; you sell off any part of the ACT transport system that has an opportunity to cover or better its operational cost. Let us look at 333 services. You would look at the intertown express service and you would sell it off. That is their idea of micro-economic reform. In the regional sense that cost would be borne by the rest of the taxpayers, but their people would make a lovely little profit. That is what micro-economic reform means on that side of the house.
On that side of the house they put up as the shining light of micro-economic reform Jeff Kennett in Victoria. What is Mr Kennett's approach to micro-economic reform?
Mr De Domenico: Have a look at what Joan Kirner did.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR LAMONT: What happens is that you privatise the profitable parts of whatever the organisation happens to be and you keep the rest.
Mr De Domenico: Talk to your mate Mr DiGregorio in Victoria. See what he has to say.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
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