Page 2285 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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DR BOURKE: Minister—
Members interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Can you keep it down? I can’t hear Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, how would real-time messaging help to improve the ACTION bus service?
MR RATTENBURY: I thank Dr Bourke for the question. I think he has touched on an example of the sort of thing I was talking about in my very first answer—that ACTION and the government are looking at a range of potential improvements that will make the bus service more accessible and more convenient for different segments of the Canberra market. There are a group of people who will find the provision of real-time passenger information very useful for them. It will mean that they can time their trip to the bus stop more accurately. They can have a better sense of whether a service is perhaps running behind, and these sorts of issues.
I think that will be part of building the confidence that people have about the reliability of the service. It is one of those areas that I touched on in my earlier answer. People have questions about reliability. So this is one way of improving the communication. Certainly, again, from the feedback I have had, there is real anticipation in the community about having real-time information available as one way of improving ACTION and assisting in increasing the patronage of the service.
Budget—cost of living statement
MR SMYTH: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, the government’s cost of living statement in this year’s budget takes into account “people aged 15” who are married. Minister, how do people possibly take your cost of living statement seriously when the scenario assumptions are so fundamentally flawed?
MR BARR: They are not, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Treasurer, outside the issue of marriage, were young teenagers factored into the cost of living statement as paying households, and how did this impact on the cost of living statement?
MR BARR: I draw the shadow treasurer’s attention to the variety of different scenarios in family households contained within the statement.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Treasurer, why did the government change the format for this year’s cost of living statement?
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