Page 3454 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 August 2008
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What is coming through from the emails to my office is that I am not seeing the negative feedback that I may have seen two years ago. I am seeing positive feedback; people are saying, “Good on you for doing this.” If there is one constant complaint, thought, it is that people cannot get on the buses—the buses are too full. I have to say that that is good news. The problem we had before was buses travelling along the routes with one or two people in them. There were 70 bus routes that had only the bus driver or a maximum of one person on the bus when we did the evaluation of network 06. Now we have people complaining because there are not enough spots on the buses, which is terrific, because we can now respond positively to that.
The other initiative that has taken off like a rocket—these folks over here do not have the grace to acknowledge it—is the gold card for people over 75 years of age. That has been embraced incredibly well. Mr Speaker, three weeks after we introduced it, 25 per cent of people in the ACT over the age of 75 had applied for and received a gold card. There are 16,000 people over the age of 75 in the ACT, and 4,000 of them have applied for and received their gold card. This is what we have to do for our senior citizens—we have to make it an attractive option for them to get out of their cars when they are perhaps a little frail. Having enticed them out of their cars, it is up to us to provide a good bus service, and I believe that we now have a bus service that we can be eminently proud of and that we can continue to provide to the people of Canberra.
Rhodium Asset Solutions Ltd
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Attorney-General and relates to the report from the public accounts committee into Rhodium Asset Solutions Ltd. Attorney, this unanimous report states: “It appears that the shareholders have failed to comply with the Territory-owned Corporations Act 1990.” Attorney, will you investigate this matter to determine if the law has or has not been complied with?
MR CORBELL: I think the Chief Minister has already answered that question.
MR SPEAKER: Is there a supplementary question?
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Attorney, how can the community trust that you will protect the public interest if you refuse to even answer a question about an investigation in relation to this unanimous report? Is your response a result of you not having any legal qualifications and therefore not having any understanding of the application of the law?
MR CORBELL: I have every confidence that the advice of the ACT Government Solicitor is accurate in all respects.
Health—clinics
MRS BURKE: My question, through you, Mr Speaker, is to the Minister for Health. Minister, you stated in this place on 19 August 2008 that the walk-in clinics will be outposts of the emergency departments. However, you have now stated that there will be no GPs at these clinics. How can these clinics be outposts of emergency departments if they do not have any doctors?
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