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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (21 April) . . Page.. 1073 ..

Mr Wood: So, they spent the $70,000 but you did not agree with that?

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. Mr Speaker, the community safety committee is a committee which gives the Government advice. It is not a statutory committee. It does not set or allocate government resources. It simply gives the Government advice and it is appropriate that on occasions governments reject advice in those circumstances. It should not happen often. If they are good committees, it should not happen; but occasionally it will happen, and this is one occasion where it did happen.

Mr Speaker, I cannot answer the question as to what will happen with the other $40,000. I expect that we will allocate it in other areas of community safety priority. Whether we would roll it over to next year's grants is a matter I will have to give consideration to.

MR RUGENDYKE: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr Smyth, the Urban Services Minister. Minister, last week I was contacted by a family in my electorate who were seeking to purchase all-zone concession term bus passes for their children for the start of the new term. They were unable to do so because there were two new requirements on the application form which they were not made aware of. Apart from producing a letter from Centrelink, school identification and a Medicare card, they also have to obtain now a principal's signature and school stamp. That, obviously, was not possible for the family during the school holidays. The family was not informed of the change by ACTION or in school newsletters before the school holidays. Minister, what steps were put in place by ACTION to inform the public of this decision to change the arrangements for purchasing concession bus passes and why was this family not informed?

MR SMYTH: I thank Mr Rugendyke for his question, because it is very important that those available to pick up these concessions be able to do so easily and efficiently. The revised application form was circulated to all schools in the ACT during term one, to enable schools to provide the form to parents or to students so that they would not have to go through this problem. ACTION interchange ticket offices were also given the revised form for distribution prior to the end of term one. That is the normal process for keeping the schools and students up to date. We would tell all the schools and the schools are very good in their cooperation with ACTION. They also want things to run smoothly. I am disappointed that the family in this case was not informed. Perhaps the message did not get home from the school.

Ms Carnell: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I have some further information about Mr Osborne's question in question time with regard to the status of marketing at Bruce Stadium at the moment. Mr Speaker, my advice is that suite occupancy for matches to date has been around the 20 to 25 mark. Seven of the suites have been sold on a year-round basis.

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