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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (5 November) . . Page.. 3629 ..

Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: It was very clear in the exchanges across the chamber whom the Minister was referring to. He suggested that I pretend to represent my constituency, and I do not. I would invite you, Mr Speaker, to reflect again on your ruling and invite the Minister to withdraw. It is imputing an improper motive.

MR SPEAKER: I do not accept the point of order at all. The Minister has not mentioned any member by name. If individuals here like to assume that they are being addressed, I am afraid that that is their problem.

MR KAINE: I presume, Mr Speaker, that it simply demonstrates that some people are a little bit precious and a little bit sensitive to criticism. I was careful not to mention anybody by name, and I am sure that Mr Wood does not mind at all my talking about him in this fashion.

The fact is, Mr Speaker, that there are two threads that are coming together in connection with upgrading the ACTION bus services in Gungahlin. The first is that I was approached by a delegation from the Gungahlin Community Council. They put to me some propositions that certain things needed to be attended to. They are being attended to as a matter of urgency. The matters that they put to me were referred to ACTION for action by the management. The other thing that is happening is the overall restructuring of ACTION as a consequence of the Graham report. That is proceeding apace. That has to do with redesigning the network, redesigning the fare structure, making the bus system more user friendly by providing at bus stops information about where buses go, and a whole range of other things that flow from the recommendations of the Graham report.

In all of that, Gungahlin is being treated equally with the rest of Canberra. So, I think it can honestly be said that ACTION is, first of all, addressing the questions that were put to me by representatives of the Gungahlin community and, secondly, addressing the broader questions that were raised as a result of the Graham report. One of the specific things that the community group asked me to deal with was making available a more direct access to Civic. That is being looked at right now as to how that can be done. There will be a fairly rapid response to that. So, when certain people are out there stirring the pot, as Mr Hird put it, first of all they need to be certain of their facts, because they may well be in danger of misrepresenting the situation to the community. Of course, that sort of thing backfires on them, and there is an election not far away.

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Minister, I understand that, at lunchtime, you launched the Travel Smart campaign, designed to encourage more people to use public transport. Can you indicate how this campaign will make ACTION services to town centres like Gungahlin, Tuggeranong and Belconnen more attractive?

MR KAINE: Thank you, Mr Hird. What I did today was launch Canberra's part in the National Travel Smart Day. It is not just a Canberra day; it is a national day, the purpose of which is to emphasise to the community the value of their public transport system and to encourage people to use it. Our contribution to this today was to launch the ACT's Take ACTION to Save campaign, which is very much a part of the national scheme.

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