Page 1196 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 9 April 2008
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The Chief Minister, through the festivals fund, is providing $20,000 worth of assistance. There is a range of cash sponsors: KAZ electronics, CBF and ActewAGL. There is an accommodation partner, the Hotel Heritage. And there are three media partners: ABC 666, the Canberra Times and Southern Cross Ten. All of those organisations are involved in producing a quality event for the people of the ACT and for visitors to the ACT—an event that the ACT government has been involved with for 22 years.
On that basis, I was confident, and the Chief Minister was confident, that we would have the capacity, with the assistance of Balloon Aloft, a local ballooning company, to operate a successful event. And that is what we are going to do.
ACTION bus service—social inclusion
DR FOSKEY: My question is to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, and concerns social inclusion and public transport in the ACT. Noting that Minister Hargreaves has been tasked by the Australian Transport Council with coming up with a policy framework on social inclusion as it pertains to transport throughout Australia, I would like to hear from the minister if a socially inclusive transport policy for the ACT would extend beyond buses and how the new ACTION network will enhance social inclusion in the Canberra region.
MR HARGREAVES: I thank Dr Foskey for the question.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Members of the opposition!
MR HARGREAVES: Haven’t your mummies told you not to be rude?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, direct your attention to Dr Foskey’s question.
MR HARGREAVES: I will, thank you, Mr Speaker. The document that will go forward to the Australian Transport Council will not merely be restricted to the ACTION network. It will, as best we can, cover all modes of transport around things such as registration regimes. We want to make sure that it has a climate change focus about it as well. There are a whole range of issues that we want to put forward.
Clearly, the role of the ACT is not only to talk to the council about issues to do with the ACT; it is also to bring together all of the interstate jurisdictions’ experiences and aspirations. It talks about, for example, the application of rail, buses and ferries in other jurisdictions. It wants to make sure that our transport plan into the future is not only about such important issues as climate change but also that it is about addressing social exclusion.
In response to the second part of Dr Foskey’s question, the new ACTION network has as one of its major planks addressing social exclusion and trying to do something about it. It does that essentially in two parts. One was the design of the routes themselves and the consultation process that went forward. One of the things we did
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