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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2286 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

If you read point (3) (g) in its entirety, it says it welcomes the early delivery of election commitments such as committing more field staff in Brindabella parks and reserves. This morning we had a wobbly explanation from Mr Hargreaves as to how they were going to get more folks out of the office and into the field. So is there more staff or not?

I thought I would go to the press releases-it has to be in the press releases somewhere. But, lo and behold, when you find the press release that talks about the environment, it does not mention more staff. I have just found it. It says that the ACT government is committed to a sustainable bush capital. No matter where you look, it is here, it is there, it is everywhere-but there is no staff.

I thought, "I know where it will be. The extra staff that they were so keen on will be in the Department of Urban Services ownership agreement, because it has the staff chart." Where are all these extra rangers and staff hiding, Mr Speaker?

I go down my list and I see "Rangers 2001-02 FTE-rangers 30.5." I look across in expectation of finding all these extra rangers. Under "2002-03 FTE" there are only 30.5 rangers. We have rangers that do not exist-but they are coming to save the environment!

It is interesting that the staffing profile for urban services goes down, in 2001-02 full-time equivalents, to 1,297.3 staff. There are 1,288 full-time equivalents in the 2002-03 budget. I am confused, Mr Speaker. There are all these extra rangers. We had that leak last week that the rangers are coming-there are extra staff in the field! However, they do not exist. When Mr Corbell was the shadow minister, he took great pains to point out to me that, because of additional burdens placed on staff, they were required-but they do not exist.

MR SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.

MR SMYTH: These self-congratulatory motions are simply a waste of time.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Planning and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.48): Mr Speaker, I would like to make a couple of comments in relation to this important motion from Mr Hargreaves.

To start with, it is entirely normal for a member of an electorate to highlight the important initiatives which have a direct impact on the day-to-day wellbeing of people in his electorate. If those people opposite did that a little more, they might be better focused on their jobs. Perhaps they are going to do it-you know, they're gunna do it!

Mr Hargreaves' motion draws attention to one very important issue on which I would like to elaborate. Mr Smyth was in the process of giving credit where credit was due, but he did not give credit for the fact that we have saved people catching buses from Tuggeranong-out of the zone which the Liberals put in place-up to 46 per cent on their monthly bus fares. In fact, there is a saving of between 35 and 46 per cent saving on bus fares for people who live in Tuggeranong and are catching a bus to Woden, Civic or Belconnen.

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