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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1827 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

inquiry to find out what fundamentally was wrong with the approach taken by ACTION, particularly in terms of their networking and fare structure. We got a fairly good response, because we have a number of issues other than just the networking and the fare structure that we have had some constructive comment upon.

I do not think that I personally accept responsibility for the sorts of things that Mr Wood seems to think I should. ACTION, quite patently, has been in some difficulty in recent months. It has been obvious from the number of letters and telephone calls that we all have got - Mr Wood has got them, I have got them, and I am sure everybody else has - complaining that the new timetable did not satisfy the needs of users. I have letters complaining about the fare structure. I suppose in recent months I have had letters ranging across the whole range of issues raised in the Graham report. The fact that you get some complaints about them does not of itself present a solution. You need to sit back and look at the problem and analyse it, to determine what the potential solutions are. We have some potential solutions offered to us now, soundly based, and the Government will be doing its best to implement them so that at the end of the day the interests of the travelling public in Canberra are served - not the interests of Mr Wood or Mr Whitecross, whatever their short-term political ambitions are, not necessarily even the interests of the people who work for ACTION, but the interests of the travelling public. That is what we aim to do; that is what we will do.

MR WOOD: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. May I answer the question that Mr Kaine posed to me?

MR SPEAKER: No, you cannot. You can ask a supplementary question.

MR WOOD: He did ask me.

MR SPEAKER: It was a rhetorical question.

Mr Kaine: Just say whether you support the report or not. Yes or no.

MR WOOD: Certainly, Mr Kaine, we would like to see that service, the Christmas and Easter service, restored to what it used to be. I know that Mr Whitecross, from the day that new timetable came out, was pointing out its deficiencies.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, can we have a supplementary question rather than a statement from the other side of the chamber?

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question Mr Wood?

MR WOOD: Certainly, Mr Speaker. Mr Kaine has been pleading ignorance. Can he tell us now whether he is on top of these issues and how rapidly some action might now take place to restore some sense of normality in the ACTION services?

MR KAINE: I think I answered that question yesterday, Mr Speaker. Yes, I am on top of them. I have read the report. It is a comprehensive report. It spells out the issues quite simply and plainly. I submit that even Mr Whitecross will understand them if he reads it. I indicated what that - - -

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