Page 3035 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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Mr Deputy Speaker, if ACTION does what Mrs Carnell wants and cuts the number of drivers and services, we will not have any services out of peak hours. That means that residents on the outer edges of Canberra, and Belconnen in particular, will have services for only three hours a day, if that. One of Labor's big achievements has been to make real improvements in local services while reducing costs. I want to talk about some of the things that this Government has done to ensure that local services continue to be delivered at a standard equal to that anywhere else in Australia. This Government has saved $10m a year in ACTION. It has been achieved quietly and steadily over a three-year period by sensibly negotiating with unions. Reducing recurrent costs by $10m has involved increased efficiency across the whole of ACTION. At the same time as achieving these savings, ACTION has delivered new services to the community.
There have been four areas of increased efficiency. Firstly, we struck an enterprise agreement with the drivers, which resulted in a saving of $4m. Secondly, we made efficiencies in the workshops. Thirdly, clerical staff were reduced by 18 people, or nearly 20 per cent. Fourthly, we introduced a regional management organisation with close links to the community councils and other groups. As well as the recurrent savings, the capital expenditure has been reviewed. This has led to a reduction in the total call on the budget. From a record high of $68.3m after the fall of the Alliance Government in the 1990-91 budget, this has been reduced to $47.2m this year - a reduction of 30 per cent.
At the same time as these efficiencies have been introduced, the quality of service has been improved. I will mention briefly three examples of service improvements. Firstly, the network has expanded into Gungahlin, with both regional and commuter services introduced, a new commuter express service to the city and similar expansion in South Tuggeranong. Secondly, loop services which provide additional travel options for cross-suburb travel have been introduced across the network. Thirdly, park and ride is an initiative of this Government. People travelling to work are encouraged to park near a bus stop and take a bus to work. The point here is that we can cut costs without affecting services. The Liberals just want to cut and cut, irrespective of the consequences. At the same time, increases in fares have been kept to the level of the CPI increases and at a rate lower than parking charges, to increase the incentive to use ACTION.
The benchmarking of ACTION's performance is continuing, and already this work is leading to substantial improvements in its performance. The bus fleet age profile is the best in Australia, and new buses are recognised as being amongst the very best in the world while maintaining their cost competitiveness. In this light, the suggestion by the Leader of the Opposition that between $27m and $38m could be saved is nothing short of ridiculous. Operators running services of the sort that would be required to deliver savings of $38m do not have ACTION's high levels of customer service. ACTION runs regular services out of the peak hours. ACTION also has a density of stops that is the envy of many cities. ACTION sets sensible limits to maximum distances people have to walk to a bus stop. This Government will not be irresponsible and reduce these standards, which is the only way the Liberals would be able to achieve their savings. And who would suffer? It would be the poorer bus-using members of our community. Whatever happened to social justice in that idea? Do the Liberals care about the environment? The Liberals would destroy the level of service being provided by ACTION to the Canberra community.
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