Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 437 ..

Mr Speaker, I find Mr Moore's motion of no real relevance to the charter of that committee. I would ask you to compare it with the charter of the Planning and Environment Committee, which has been asked, by this Assembly, to examine matters related to planning, land management, transport, economic development, commercial development, industrial and residential development, and so on. It seems to me that, as the committees currently stand, the matter which Mr Moore has raised can be interpreted only as being a matter fit for examination by Mr Moore's own committee. Mr Speaker, I find it extraordinary that Mr Moore would seek to flick-pass the matter in the way that he has.

The fact is that Mr Moore himself raised this as an issue during the election campaign, as he has told us, and he came off somewhat the worse for wear on it. I think Mr Moore started off talking about deregulation of the taxi industry, seemingly unaware that it was already subject to the Trade Practices Act in the ACT. He ran off at the mouth and got trapped in his own rhetoric, and ended up being forced to say that he thought the Government should buy back all the taxi plates at a cost of some $48m. That is, I believe, one of the silliest ideas that came out of the election period. Mr Speaker, the cost to the Government of buying back those plates - $48m - is entirely unproductive. Why on earth would any government want to do that? The fact of the matter is that it has been done - in Tasmania, where the Government has bought back the taxi plates. If Mr Moore were to do as I have done - go down and talk to these taxi people in Tasmania - he would find that it did not work too well. Both the industry and the drivers themselves are still at a high degree of disadvantage, having followed that course of action.

Mr Speaker, the danger to the individual taxi operators that Mr Moore has raised is the devaluation of their investment. It is a very substantial investment. In many cases, it is people's lifetime investment - their superannuation, their life savings and so on. They are small business people who are making a living out of these taxis. I am not saying that the system is perfect, by any means. There are, clearly, problems with having only one operator, just as there are problems with having only one daily newspaper. There are, clearly, problems with some of the employment conditions of people who are hired by those owner-operators to work in taxis. But, Mr Speaker, I would put it to you that those are not the issues that Mr Moore has expressed his principal concern with. His principal concern was with deregulation. I think the fact that he is now trying to fob this matter off onto another committee, of which he is not a member, really does indicate that he is looking for a way out. He is trying to wriggle out of this issue by handing it over to somebody else. I, for one - and I am speaking as the chair of the Public Accounts Committee - believe that it is Mr Moore's issue and that Mr Moore's committee is the committee, as decided by this Assembly, which ought to be looking at the issue.

I am also aware that, at the time that the Assembly decided on the make-up and the charters of the different committees, we also had in mind that there would be a review of the operation of committees in three months' time. Mr Moore has talked about manipulating some other committees to make it more appropriate that his motion today goes again to a committee other than the Planning and Environment Committee.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .