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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1821 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Minister, do you support this view? Why, given your recent statements of support for ACTION, were you not more vocal when you were a backbencher and your predecessor and others were doing their best to dismember the bus service? Why were you defending the cuts, including when you became Minister, that forced passengers away from the public transport system?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, the Graham report deals with many ways in which management and the Government, working together with the unions involved, can improve the quality of the service and the standards of the service being delivered by ACTION. I suspect that some of what is in that report is new to some of us, but it may not be new to others.

Part of the question dealt with the fact that I was a backbencher. As a backbencher, I was not involved in the management of ACTION in any way. I was not involved in any management negotiations. I was not involved in any management decisions. I was not on any regular net for the provision of information about even what was going on in ACTION. I hardly think that the Leader of the Opposition can hold me accountable for something that happened when I was in no way involved with the management of this organisation.

I think the important point about this, Mr Speaker, is that one of the first things I did on assuming the responsibility for ACTION in February was to commission a study to determine whether or not there was anything fundamentally wrong with the way in which ACTION was being managed. I have a comprehensive report, an excellent report, that highlights some things that need to be done. I have indicated already that the Government is going to move as quickly as possible to implement the recommendations. Some will take a little longer than others. Some we can implement almost immediately.

One of the things that we will be doing as quickly as possible is making the information about ACTION bus timetables more user friendly, so that people will know where they can go to and from, and that they can get there easily and quickly. There will be no doubt in their minds because the information will not be as confusing as it currently seems to be in the ACTION book. Also, the signage at bus stops will be more consumer friendly, so that people can see where they have to go to get on a particular bus to go to wherever they want to go to. I think that the Government has responded quickly and appropriately to the matters that the Graham report has brought to our attention.

Mr Whitecross now leads a party that was in government for five years, during which time ACTION gradually deteriorated. I did not hear Mr Whitecross or anybody like him complaining at the time. Only since Mr Whitecross has ascended to the doubtful position of Leader of the Opposition has he suddenly become very interested in these issues. One would almost assume from his questions on this issue that he knows all the problems and all the answers, while the rest of us do not. I submit, Mr Speaker, that he is patently wrong in that.

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