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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Tuesday, 3 August 2004) . . Page.. 3348 ..

self-funded retirees; it includes even those whom Mr Quinlan referred to as really needing those concessions. This Labor government even denies pensioners and self-funded retirees interstate and local transport concessions. Referring to interstate transport concessions, yesterday Mr Stanhope also said in his media release that his government:

… had already indicated its willingness to support the Commonwealth/State/Territory reciprocal transport concession scheme ...

On 14 May the Chief Minister, in answer to a question that I asked, stated:

The ACT Government has not accepted the offer at this time either.

All that this government has done is enter into negotiations and some initial discussions with officials in the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services. It is news to me that this government has indicated its willingness to support that scheme. So far as the ACT is concerned, this is a fairly generous offer by the Commonwealth government. We would have received $49,000 in 2003-04 and we will receive $50,000 in 2004-05 and $53,000 in 2005-06 to help fund that initiative.

I refer to our local bus service. Mr Stanhope, in his media release yesterday, stated that his government “would consider extending bus concessions to peak hour travel in the next budget”. That is a promise that the Labor government made at the last election. Three years have passed and it has not yet delivered on its promise to pensioners, or to anybody else for that matter. It is as though it is concerned that thousands of pensioners will invade peak hour buses in order to travel at that time.

If government members had bothered to talk to pensioners they would have found that the only reason pensioners engage in peak hour travel is that they have doctors’ appointments, dental appointments, or something of that nature that obliges them to travel at that time. Very few pensioners would be in the category of those who travel regularly. The government, in a desperate attempt to justify why it will not allow a concession that it promised at the last election, stated that it would cost half a million dollars.

I do not accept that absurd figure of half a million dollars for pensioners travelling on peak hour buses. It does not make any sense whatsoever. One can only assume that the government has other reasons for refusing pensioners the opportunity to engage in peak hour travel. This government is going out of its way to alienate 8,000 low-income self-funded retirees and heaven knows how many pensioners in relation to bus travel and other concessions. I do not know what is driving this government.

If this government had some sort of compassion or concern—and it keeps telling us that it does, even if it is restricted, in Mr Quinlan’s words, to those who really need it—I imagine that it would have done a lot more to address these concessions. We are only three months away from an election. If this government does not do something over the next few months it will have missed the bus on these issues and no pun is intended. This government certainly has not demonstrated that it cares for Canberra’s ageing population.

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