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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3991 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

We have been made a promise that, come Christmas, they will not repeat the disaster of the summer holiday timetables, which they were happy to repeat for two years. So, there might be a chance that we will actually get some progress on that one. But, of course, it has not happened yet.

The Minister said that they would ensure that the bus purchasing program meets the needs of the improved network, and that they are already introducing midi-buses on selected routes as part of that. Interestingly, the Graham report suggests that midi-buses might not be particularly economic and that mini-buses might actually be more economic. But, Mr Speaker, that is perhaps a story for another day. The Minister said that they would carry out community-wide surveys and consultations to provide an up-to-date information base for network redesign. Mr Speaker, they are doing some community consultation. When in doubt, continue negotiations with the union; but have some community consultation. But, whatever you do, do not actually do anything to improve the bus system. Do not actually take any actions that you could take now to improve the bus system. Do not actually put on an extra bus anywhere or improve any route.

Mr Speaker, one of the interesting things in the Graham report is that it says, "Do not go for these wholesale `redesign everything from the ground up' network redesigns. Do it progressively. Do a bit here and a bit there. Respond to the needs. Be smart". But what have they done? They have said, "We are going to do a ground-up redesign of the network. We will not be able to implement it for another year and a half; but it will be good when it comes. Trust us". Mr Speaker, these people do not deserve the trust of the Canberra community, because they do not understand public transport. Public transport is fundamental infrastructure for the Canberra community. The way to implement this infrastructure is not on the basis of demand. These people keep cutting out services because they say that there are not enough people on them. The way to improve bus services, Mr Speaker, is to implement a service which is going to be attractive to patrons. If you keep making it less attractive, you will get fewer users. We should be implementing a public transport system which is more attractive. We should be looking at the fare structures to make them more attractive. We should be identifying the things which are causing concern to potential users and addressing them. We should be doing it now, not waiting for the by and by, as the Minister is doing.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services) (11.25): Mr Speaker, I do not know where to begin. Mr Whitecross started off with some false accusations about the Government. He has not even got his facts straight. One minute, he is telling me that I have not done anything yet; then he is telling me that I should do things gradually. I am not too sure what I can do to satisfy Mr Whitecross. What I would like to do, Mr Speaker, is put some facts on the table. I will make just a couple of comments about Mr Whitecross's remarks, before I get down to the facts - and there is no similarity between Mr Whitecross's comments and the facts, let me assure you.

Mr Whitecross started off by saying, "Now is the time that we should review ACTION to see where we are going". I started that process nine months ago. What has he been doing? Has he been having a sleep for nine months? Only now has he discovered that it is time to have a look at ACTION. He made some snide remark about my needing to get re-elected. I do not need this sort of gimmickry to get re-elected; but, obviously, Mr Whitecross does. It is the only reason why this motion is on the agenda today.

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