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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1662 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

what was their answer? They said, "It does not matter. It will save us $300,000. We do not care about the users. We care about only saving the money. We care about only the magic $12.7m". Now they are saying, "We have a new idea. Why do we not base the holiday and summer timetables on weekday travel patterns? What a good idea!". It is a good idea, Mr Kaine. It is a pity you did not do it.

Mr Kaine also mentioned responsive network and timetable changes to meet the changing requirements of the community and to accommodate patronage increases. It would be nice if we could get some patronage increases. If you start doing the kinds of things the Labor Party has been talking about and if you start trying to improve the bus service, maybe you will get some improvements in patronage. But, first of all, you have to have a commitment to it. These people are the people who have destroyed the ACTION bus system in Canberra, and now they want us to trust them to put it all back together.

Perhaps the most significant thing in Mr Kaine's remarks was that most of the hard decisions will take over 12 months to implement. Let me get out my calendar. What happens between now and 12 months' time? Is there not an election in between? Is that not convenient? They are saying, "Trust us. We spent our first three years in government destroying the public transport system; but, if you re-elect us, trust us to fix it again. We will fix it again". I am sorry, Mr Kaine. The Liberals are not going to be able to go to the next election saying, "We know we destroyed the public transport system, but if you re-elect us we promise to fix it". No-one is going to believe you. Your record is there for everybody to see. I am afraid it is far too late for this Government to say to the people of Canberra, the 13 per cent of commuters who walked away from the bus system in 1996 alone, "If you re-elect us in 1998 we will fix the problem". They have done the damage. Their record is there for all to see. They will have to go to the next election with that record in front of people. Nobody is going to trust you, Mr Kaine, to fix this problem, after the mess your Government has made of it.

Mr Speaker, the Government have indicated a couple of things that they think they can do this year. Let me give you a couple of examples. Mr Kaine said that the Government will trial some additional services later at night from night areas such as Civic and Manuka. Does that not sound like the Nightrider service? The first decision of this Government was to break an election promise and cancel the Nightrider service. Why did they cancel it? It cost too much money. Now this Government says that these measures will be implemented within the current budget. Now they are admitting that the cost was negligible, but their excuse for cutting back on this service in the first place was that it cost too much money. It was a valuable service; it was a sensible service; it was a sensible community safety measure. Now they are bringing it back and they want everyone to be grateful. They cancelled it, waited two years and are now bringing it back - and they want applause. They say that we should thank them. What a cheek!

Mr Speaker, another interesting recommendation is for continuing negotiations with the Transport Workers Union on work reform to allow additional services to be implemented and redesign of the network to be introduced. These are the people who have to be taken to the Industrial Relations Commission to tell them to talk to their own work force. Now they are trying to say that they have this wonderful ongoing process of negotiation.

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