Page 1046 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
To conclude, we essentially have a situation with the current WAT system where an essential community service is being run on a for-profit basis and this creates an unworkable situation. It is time to move beyond strategies which have been trialled and failed and look to a different system which will provide a workable system for people with a disability and drivers.
I have proposed in my amended motion that a feasibility study be done prior to a plan being developed, which would include an examination of funds currently directed towards subsidies and other related fees to show how a service with salaried drivers would compare to what is currently directed towards WATs. As I have already said in my speech, it should be noted, again, that under the current proposal of developing a centralised booking system, it will cost, I understand, around $400,000 per annum. As I have already noted, a further examination of subsidies and fees has already been foreshadowed. I have also proposed a new reporting date of September 2011. I commend my motion to the Assembly.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Minister for Transport, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Land and Property Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for the Arts and Heritage) (12.18): The government, as members know, undertook a comprehensive review of the ACT taxi industry just last year aimed at providing more efficient, responsive and viable taxi operations for Canberra. Indeed, I released the full report and the government’s response to that report just a couple of months ago. Among the primary motives for this review was the government’s determination to address concerns raised by Canberrans who depend upon wheelchair accessible taxis, the very issue of the subject of this motion today.
The government accepts that WAT services in this town are not as good as they should be. As Minister for Transport, I receive representations from people whose only realistic public transport option is the WAT service, expressing their frustration at its poor performance. Their frustrations range from missing appointments due to the failure of booked services to materialise to waiting in the cold or the dark for a taxi after a night out. Some people are even reluctant to go out at night because they feel that they cannot trust the WAT service.
The government is frustrated too. We accept that this situation is unacceptable and we are frustrated on behalf of all Canberrans who depend on the WAT service in order to participate fully in the life of this community—their right. Perhaps most frustratingly, it seems that the quality of the sector has not improved despite all of the government’s attempts to drive improvement from the outside over a number of years. Before I outline what steps the government will implement to improve WAT services as a result of the 2010 review, I will briefly reacquaint the chamber with what has been attempted.
In her motion Ms Bresnan refers to reviews commissioned by the government in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2010. The inference, and I am sure it is not intentional, is that all we have done is to commission reviews. In fact, we have over time made significant and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video