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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1663 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

The Government would do better if they lived up to some of this rhetoric; but I am afraid the facts, even the facts of just the last week, demonstrate that there is a big gap between what Mr Kaine is trying to tell us in this statement here and the reality of how they conduct themselves in relations with the union.

Mr Kaine said that the Government will improve the summer network and public holiday services. About time! After two years of running absolutely appalling summer and public holiday services, they have now decided they can do this. Let me remind you that these measures will be implemented within the current budget. The only excuse for doing what they did was to save money. Now they are saying they can improve these services within the current budget.

Mr Moore: That was the Dipper.

MR WHITECROSS: That was the Government. A thing which they said they could not do before because they did not have the money they now say they can do within the budget. It is amazing what happens when you have your polling back. You have had the call from Dawn Crosby saying, "You had better do something about the public transport system, because the Canberra community hate what you have done. You had better fix it up. You had better start improving it, because they are really mad about the $12.7m you have cut out of it. They are really mad about how you have cut back the holiday timetable. They are really mad about how you have cut back the school bus services. They are really mad about how you have reduced the frequency of services, hiked the fares by 50 per cent and driven 13 per cent of people off the buses in one year. They are really mad about all these things, so you had better start making some improvements". It is amazing how you can find the money in your budget to make a couple of improvements once the pollsters got on the phone to you and told you the bad news that the community do not like it.

There was already a process for telling the Government that the community did not like it, and that was this Assembly. We have been telling them again and again that the community does not like these services, but they just ignore the Assembly. They just ignore what we have to say to them. They have been arrogantly going about their business. How often have you heard the Minister say, "We are here just to make decisions; we do not bother analysing whether they are good decisions or bad decisions."? That is the standard line from this Government when we ask, "Where is the analysis to support the cuts you have made and how they are going to work in practice?". They just say, "We were elected to make decisions and we will make decisions. We do not care whether they are good ones or bad ones. We just make decisions". That is the approach of this Government again and again.

Who can forget Mr Humphries's analysis of how you tell whether you made the right decision after you have made a decision? You look around and see whether everybody hates your guts for making it. If everybody criticises you, then it was obviously the right decision. Sure as eggs, everyone has been criticising the Government for their treatment

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