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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3990 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

What else did they say? They will introduce better timetabling information. How complicated is it to put up a bit of timetable information in some suitable places so that people, when they are catching the bus, can actually see when the next bus is coming? They will provide customer-friendly service staff in interchanges and, progressively, timetable information at major bus stops. What has the Government done on that? We used to have customer-friendly staff in Civic. We used to have people in Civic who could answer your questions about buses. What did the Government do? They closed down the service and they moved all the staff to the first floor of some building, behind security doors. That is how well they implemented that recommendation, Mr Speaker. But now they are madly scrambling to figure out a way to do a backflip on their decision to put all the staff on the first floor.

Mr Speaker, the fact is that, far from doing what Mr Kaine said and immediately implementing it, they went in the opposite direction. They said that they would ensure that feeder bus services interconnect at interchanges and that services do not depart before connecting services arrive. What action have they taken on that? None. They said that they would continue negotiations with the Transport Workers Union on work reform to allow additional services to be implemented and redesign of the network to be introduced. Mr Speaker, surprise, surprise! The one thing that the Government is doing is continuing negotiations with the Transport Workers Union. Never mind all the things that are in their power to do; the one thing that they are getting on with is talking to the unions and making out that it is all the unions' fault, because, when in doubt, a little bit of tub-thumping about the unions is always a good thing. So they say, "We are continuing negotiations with the Transport Workers Union". Mind you, they have not negotiated with the Transport Workers Union over the last three years.

Mr Kaine comes into this place and tries to blame the Labor Party for all the work practices which Graham identifies as needing to be further discussed with the union. But, of course, under the Labor Government, we reformed a number of work practices. We introduced work practices which allowed mechanics to drive buses. We introduced work practices which allowed part-time drivers to work alongside full-time drivers. The Labor Party did those things. The Labor Party was making progress on workplace reform. What did this Government do? They had a long, costly industrial dispute, which cost the community $5m, which put buses off the road; and, at the end of it, what did we get? They rushed out and signed up an EBA, without actually securing any of this workplace reform, without actually making any progress at all on workplace reform, because they do not know how to negotiate with unions. They know how to have a fight; they know how to cost the community $5m with an unproductive industrial dispute; but do they actually know how to get a result? No. It is just like the VMOs. They know how to give away $3m of the taxpayers' money; but do they actually know how to negotiate any reform? No.

Mr Speaker, what else did the Minister promise that they would do? He referred to "additional services to be implemented and redesign of the network to be introduced". Mr Speaker, I have not seen any work on that yet. He said that they would improve the summer network and public holiday services. We have been made a promise about that.

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