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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1663 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Even though the surplus was not designed to impress economists, Access Economics has been impressed and has said, "It"-that is, the government-"has contributed significantly to the strong position it is in via greater restraint shown on recurrent spending."

I welcome those comments. It is good to have some recognition. In particular, I hope that the reply Mr Stanhope gives on Friday at the National Press Club will be a full exposition of where the government has gone wrong. I might recommend that he try to learn tap dancing or something before Friday because he might need to fill in a bit of the 55 minutes he has to stand up and speak.

MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Minister for Urban Services. Minister, in the 2000-2001 budget for ACTION an extra $8.208 million is being allocated. We all know that this is to fill ACTION's very large black hole. The following highlights for ACTION are set out in the budget paper: refining services-this is code for cutting the service; reforming the workplace-this is code for cutting jobs; improving customer service, and we all know this is impossible because fares are being increased. Minister, your government intends to cut 12 more jobs from ACTION and reduce the services. Is this not merely more of the same ideology of cutback with no real result?

MR SMYTH: This government is committed to public transport in this city because that is what the people of Canberra want. The dilemma that faces the government is that many Canberrans choose not to use the bus service. Recent reforms have led to a six per cent increase in use of ACTION buses. It is the largest increase in a very long time. There are clearly some factors outside our control-things like the rise in the cost of fuel. You can only estimate what you think that rise will be. It has gone further than anyone would have expected. We are all shocked when we get to the petrol pump and see the rise in the price of petrol. But there have been significant reforms in delivering the service.

What we have, though-and it is not me that says this; the independent pricing commissioner says it-is the government giving too great a discount on periodical tickets. The independent pricing commissioner says that we should reduce that discount. So we have had an accompanying shift by Canberrans who are canny and have gone out and bought the monthly tickets. Mr Hargreaves mentioned price rises. Yes, there are price rises. The price rises are determined inside a framework by the independent pricing commissioner and he approves what we want to do.

The government is committed to public transport in this town for those that need it and for those that seek to use it. Why? Because we are helping to build up their quality of life. We want to help improve their quality of life by providing the sort of service that they deserve. And that is social capital-the sort of thing that those opposite find so offensive, that they find patronising.

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