Page 3933 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 23 October 1990
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with the citizens of this Territory because of the vision, the foresight and the determination of the people in this chamber who will vote to pass it.
Bill agreed to.
MOTOR TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 5) 1990
Debate resumed from 20 September 1990, on motion by Mr Duby:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MRS GRASSBY (8.37): The Labor Party is happy to support the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 5). The Bill will amend the Motor Traffic Act to allow the Minister to determine the maximum fare for taxi hire by notice published in the Gazette. Previously taxi fares were amended by regulation - a very long and slow process. It is ironic, Mr Speaker, that one of the first issues I faced on becoming Minister in May last year was the delay in increasing taxi fares. A recommendation to increase taxi fares had been made to the Commonwealth Government prior to self-government but no action had been taken, and I was threatened with a taxi strike in my first week in office because of the delay in implementing the new fares. I am pleased to say we were able to act quickly and avert a strike. However, had the proposed legislation been in place the crisis would never have arisen. I am pleased to be able to support this Bill. We had this Bill in the pipeline to bring in when we were in government, and the Minister has just brought it into the house. We will be pleased to support this Bill in full from the Labor Party side.
MR JENSEN (8.39): Mr Speaker - - -
Mrs Grassby: God, I thought we would be spared this.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby!
MR JENSEN: Mr Speaker, despite the histrionics of Mrs Grassby opposite, I, too, am pleased to support this Bill to amend the Motor Traffic Act 1936 which will allow future taxi fares to be set by ministerial determination. At present the taxi and private hire car regulations must be amended to alter taxi fare levels. It is a time consuming exercise which ties up scarce legislative resources. The fare increases which took effect in July 1989 took three months to process.
It is interesting that Mrs Grassby, in fact, was making some comments about the problems she faced when she came to office. Clearly, Mr Speaker, this is another example of the need for self-government in the ACT. The previous Labor organisation and, I would suspect, the Federal
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