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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 4320 ..

Horses will not eat Paterson's curse if there are sufficient alternative supplies of food. I think there is an issue here for horse owners; they need to be aware of the dangers of Paterson's curse. It is generally known by all those who own animals, and certainly should be known by all horse owners, that they do need to ensure that horses have adequate supplies of foodstuffs so that they will not be attracted to Paterson's curse as the only food available to them, which is how horses treat that weed.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister's time has expired.

MRS DUNNE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Minister, why is it that private lessees seem to be able to manage the problem on their land, to the extent that the boundaries between government land and private land show a distinct purple demarcation? Why is it that private leaseholders seem to be able to manage the property whereas government land in the ACT is a disgrace to land management?

MR STANHOPE: I am almost lost for words. That is the greatest load of unmitigated garbage that I have ever had presented to me as a question.

ACTION timetables

MRS CROSS: My question is to the minister for transport, Mr Corbell. Recently, there was a conference in Canberra, called "Sustainable Forum", which was looking at the future for city living. People attended from many different jurisdictions, coming from as far afield as Perth. The ACTION bus service received quite a few accolades from these people, except for a very basic and simple communication area-timetables. It seems that, if you are a visitor who is wanting to use buses, Canberra is not a good place to be. Apparently, there are no timetables at bus stops, so that casual visitors who decide to catch a bus have to rely on waiting for a long time or asking someone, if there is someone to ask, where the buses go and when. Minister, have you considered attaching timetables to bus stops, as occurs in other cities? If you have, when are you planning to do so?

MR CORBELL: I thank Mrs Cross for her question on an important matter. As far as I am aware, there is a range of bus stops round Canberra that do provide timetable information. There are, though, two issues that need to be kept in context. First of all, it is not possible to provide timetable information at every bus stop round Canberra. The other issue which it is important to stress is that I am aware that at bus stops at which timetable information is provided, it can be vandalised. On occasions that has resulted in the timetable information being removed-more like burnt and melted, actually-and sometimes it is not replaced after a repeated series of vandalism.

The government is conscious of the importance of providing increased levels of information, especially for casual users and out-of-town users of the bus service. The government is currently investigating the provision of information on timetables in new ways. The technology we are currently investigating includes real-time information whereby information is supplied via an LCD screen or some other means on when the next bus is due to arrive. That would make it convenient not only for people who are not familiar with the network and the regular run of buses but also regular users as they could be assured as to how long they would have to wait for a bus, when the next bus

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