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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2820 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Turning to the issue of local public transport, you could hardly accuse the Government of having an integrated approach to public transport in Canberra. Last year, the Government raised fares in the public transport system by about 27 per cent for adults.

Mr De Domenico: Some fares.

MR WHITECROSS: Adult fares.

Mr De Domenico: Some fares; you said "all fares". That is not right. Some fares.

MR WHITECROSS: Adult fares were raised by 27 per cent; some by 30 per cent, Mr De Domenico.

Mr De Domenico: We reduced some as well.

MR WHITECROSS: Not last year. At the same time, they put up the parking fees for cars. Their argument was, "We have to put up the parking fees for cars so that people do not all start driving their cars but continue to catch the bus - hopefully, catch even more buses". That was their argument at the time. But this year they put up the adult fares by another 21 per cent.

Mr De Domenico: Some adult fares.

MR WHITECROSS: Most adult fares by 21 per cent. I should digress at this point to say that Mrs Carnell does not concede that they put up the fares. All the people who get on the bus with their Fare Go tickets would say that fares have gone up, but Mrs Carnell does not think fares have gone up. She thinks they have reduced the discount. This is just her latest example of doublespeak. But I digress. This year they put the fares up by another 21 per cent, and what did they do to parking fees? They cut them; they reduced the parking fees. Last year they said, "We are putting the fares up, but we are going to put the parking fees up as well so that people do not stop using the buses". This year they put the bus fares up again and they cut the parking fees back to the levels they were before. Figure that for logic, Mr Speaker. That is not what I would call a coordinated strategy for encouraging people to use buses.

In the meantime, in between hiking the bus fares by 50 per cent in the time they have been in government, they have also managed to cut back on the services. They reduced the services at the beginning of this year and they have planned another hefty reduction in services for next year.

Mr De Domenico: That is not true either.

MR WHITECROSS: It is true; and this at a time when Mr De Domenico claims to be interested in cutting people out of buses. Mr De Domenico might think he has a coordinated strategy on public transport, but in fact the bus routes he cut out at the beginning of this year cut out 20,000 passenger journeys.

Mr De Domenico: They are journeys. How many passengers, Mr Whitecross?

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