Page 4442 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010
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soon as I can gather the information that I need. Indeed, I would be happy to give a commitment now that members of the Assembly will be informed within the next week or so by letter of the outcome of those representations.
ACTION bus service—ticketing system
MR COE: My question is to the Minister for Territory and Municipal Services. I refer to the Auditor-General’s report Delivery of ACTION bus services. The Auditor-General found:
There is a potential risk that ACTION will not be in a position to use the data produced by the new ATS, for example, to provide services to the public …
The report also mentions that a 2007 review identified that an increased ICT capacity would be required before a new system is implemented. Minister, what guarantee can you provide that there will be adequate ICT capacity to support a new ticketing system and that ACTION will be able to use the data provided by the new ticketing system?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Mr Coe for the question. Indeed, it is one of the interesting aspects of the report that it did make a critical commentary in relation to data, ticketing and revenue from ticketing—issues that the government has been very open about over the last year or two. It is a significant issue that the government sought to respond to through the purchase of new technology, a smart card ticketing system which will, of course, have the dual purpose and function of dealing with issues around the leakage of revenue as a result of the current arrangements. Additionally, it will deal with major gaps in our capacity to collect and appropriately utilise data.
Again, Mr Coe identifies an interesting aspect of the auditor’s report. It makes comment about ticketing. It makes comment about revenue. It makes comment about data. The government has, of course, Mr Coe, as you know, invested $8 million in a brand new smart card ticketing system which will have that triple function of dealing with issues of data, dealing with issues of revenue and dealing with issues, of course, of efficiency.
These are issues that are being addressed as, of course, were many of the issues that are raised in the report. We have invested $8 million in a new smart card ticketing system and technology that is currently being trialled. Of course, we are determined to get it right. We are all aware of the issues that Melbourne particularly faced in relation to a smart card ticketing system that did not work well.
But I have every confidence that, as a result of the work that we have done, the consultations that were inherent in that work, the example that we take from Western Australia where we sourced the ticketing system and the technology, we will deal with all of those issues which the Auditor-General highlighted as issues of concern—at a cost of $8 million.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Coe, a supplementary question?
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