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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (17 June) . . Page.. 1968 ..
MR SPEAKER
: Order, Mr Wood!MRS DUNNE
: I did not interrupt him, Mr Speaker.Mr Wood
: We got the tick on it.MR SPEAKER
: Mr Wood, order!Mr Wood
: I just want to make a point.MRS DUNNE
: I did not interrupt him. He can speak again; I will give him leave.MR SPEAKER
: Mr Wood, you will get your chance when you close the debate. I withdraw that. You will not close the debate; you have had your chance.MRS DUNNE
: This is part of the very mixed message we are getting from this government, Mr Speaker. Officials have come into my office and said, "Mrs Dunne, we must pass this bill by 30 June or all the national competition payments will be up for grabs."In the estimates process the other day when we discussed this issue and again today, Mr Wood has said that they are not up for grabs. We do not have to rush pell-mell into this matter. We have to handle it in a way that serves the needs of the people of Canberra. The people of Canberra most intimately affected, whose livelihoods are on the line here, have been begging me to do what I am doing today. The reason that I am doing it is to satisfy myself, and it is my responsibility to do so as the shadow spokesman on transport, that there is not a better way.At this stage, I am not convinced that there is not a better way. It seems to me that this bill is flawed. We do not believe that the government has properly considered all the implications. As we found out from the minister in the estimates process during the past month, the government did look at the Western Australian option of financing the taxi licences, but withdrew from negotiations. But those negotiations were carried on without even the knowledge of the taxi industry and the hire car industry that they were going on. These were closed door negotiations of the sort which are not appropriate to a government who flaunts its openness and its accountability.
We have in this town at the moment instances of businesses being hung out to dry by the Department of Urban Services, which has made undertakings to them that have not been kept in this legislation. On 21 August 2000 the manager of road services in the Department of Urban Services wrote to a constituent of mine saying that the transitional accreditation arrangements for new small buses would expire on 1 June 2003, which was true, and that it was anticipated that a new regulatory category for small buses would be in place at that time. It is not there.
On the undertakings given by those officers, people went out and made business investments, but the promises made to them were not forthcoming. The next thing they heard was that Urban Services was threatening them with a $25,000 fine if they continued to operate vehicles that they were told that they could go out and buy. The same person signed both letters. This is what is wrong. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way that this policy has been formulated and I want to help the people of the ACT get to the bottom of it. That is why we are going to look at
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