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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4042 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Most importantly, I have to turn to the remarks made by Mr Osborne. Mr Osborne gets full marks for entertainment. I am always happy to be complimented, even by Mr Osborne. Unfortunately, when your primary objective is to have a laugh, when your primary objective is ridicule, when your primary objective is to make a joke, you do not worry about the facts, you do not worry about whether what you are saying is true and you do not worry about whether you got your story straight; you just have a joke. And so it is with Mr Osborne. Most of the things that Mr Osborne said are just not true. For example, Mr Osborne said that the Labor Party is trenchantly opposed to purchaser-provider models and never supports purchaser-provider models. That is simply not true, Mr Speaker. There are times when purchaser-provider models are appropriate and there are times when they are not appropriate. That is the first thing to say.

The second thing to say is: What does the Graham report say about purchaser-provider models? What did Mr Osborne say? Mr Osborne said that the Graham report recommends a purchaser-provider model for ACTION. No, it does not. What it says is:

The replacement of the current ad-hoc arrangements regarding the determination of school bus services -

are you listening, Mr Osborne? - not all bus services, school bus services -

with a purchaser-provider model which places responsibility of eligibility and funding with the Department of Urban Services and responsibility for service provision with ACTION.

In other words, Mr Graham is saying that the way we organise school bus services is very unclear. Who is responsible for what is very confusing. If you needed a better demonstration of that, you only had to listen to the Minister for Education's contribution. Clearly, he has no idea whose responsibility it is and who makes the decision. We are talking about a specific set of services for school buses, and Mr Graham says a purchaser-provider model would be a way of clarifying responsibilities and replacing the current ad hoc arrangements. Who can argue with replacing ad hoc arrangements with some sort of structured service agreement?

The second thing that Mr Osborne said is that the Graham report called for the tendering out of school bus services to the private sector. Are you listening, Mr Osborne? Are you paying close attention? Wrong, wrong, wrong! What it says is that if tenders were called they could run the school bus services cheaper. What it actually says is:

This appears to be a compelling argument for ACTION to introduce appropriate management reforms in order to reduce the excessive overheads, fixed costs and restrictive work practices of drivers that currently prevent the provision of more cost effective school bus services ...

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