Page 2877 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mr Hargreaves, please address the chair, not Mr Coe.
MR HARGREAVES: I will, Madam Assistant Speaker. I ask you: does Mr Coe—
Mr Coe: What about phase 2 of network 08?
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Mr Coe, please listen to Mr Hargreaves. Mr Hargreaves, please start. Clerk, please start the clock.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Madam Assistant Speaker. What do you think Mr Coe knows about the development of bus services in this town? Absolutely diddly-squat. Network 06 was roundly rejected by the community, and quite rightly so, and then we changed it. I will tell you whose bright idea it was. The one that we inherited was a really good one, the zonal fare system. Did you know, Madam Assistant Speaker, that the concession fare that we are about to charge these students is still cheaper than when these people had their zonal fare system in place? They were actually going to charge them more under the zonal fare system than we are currently doing. In fact, it was us that brought in the single fare anywhere.
When we changed that to network 08, which was a wholesale revision of it, there was a very significant change back to the hub system, in some cases, and in more traffic. For two years at least, from memory, there had been significant disruption and uncertainty. There were a whole range of issues and certainly a loss of faith in the bus system, regardless of which user it was. When we introduced network 08—and I was minister at the time—there was a conscious decision not to increase the bus fares. We wanted people to experience the bus system, and they experienced it. The reason that Mr Coe advances for it and goes three, three, three, three, 49 does not hold water because there was not any fare increase in the previous year. So he got it wrong again.
The thing is there was a deliberate no increase. Mr Coe says it is all about the budget. It is all about an efficient bus service. He says there are only three ways to increase the fare box: raise the fare box—well, we are doing that—have a more efficient bus service—well, we are doing that—or both of them, and I said, “Yes, we’re doing that too.” The changes to the network are actually working at the minute and they are considerably better than they were when these guys were in office. They did not have the free bus travel for the over-75s, the gold pass. They had a zonal system which was the most amazingly expensive system you could possibly imagine.
What we are seeing here is an increase in a customer fare which actually brings us in line with the rest of the country. I do not see what the issue is. I do not see where the mileage is for Mr Coe. I do not understand what on earth it is about this that has upset Mr Coe so much. He is saying that we cannot increase any fares. I understood him to say: “The increase in fares”—I paraphrase it a tad; you can check the Hansard because I do not think I am too far out—“will make people reluctant to get on a bus. It will be”—and I use his words—“a disincentive to get on the bus.” That logic, extended by its absolute, is that we will never increase them. I know that the Greens have asked in the past—I think Dr Foskey may even have raised it—“What about
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