Page 2523 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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MR DUBY: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. I would like to ask the Chief Minister how she can justify the statement that the Ainslie Transfer Station will be reopened - that is what she announced yesterday - when she does not know what the costs of that action will be.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I can justify my commitment to reopening the Ainslie Transfer Station by saying that I listen to what people say to me; I do not think it needs any greater justification than that. Quite clearly, there is a demand amongst the people in that area for the transfer station to be reopened. We know what the costs were of running that tip at the time that Mr Duby closed it down, and Mr Duby knows that better than anybody else. I would have thought that, given the costs that were involved then, there was absolutely no justification for taking unilateral action and closing it.
I think what Mr Duby probably needs is a lesson in keeping his promises. At that time I made a quite clear, public commitment that when it was in my power to do so I would reopen the Ainslie Transfer Station. As with all such commitments, I intend to deliver on it.
ACTION - Efficiency Improvements
MR STEFANIAK: My question is addressed to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. The Priorities Review Board considered ACTION's efficiency in 1990 and concluded that there was considerable scope for improvement, and that the current institutional frameworks and entrenched practices were inhibiting efficiency improvements. Will the Minister inform the Assembly as to what steps the ALP in government is taking to give the ACT taxpayers the best value for their transport dollar?
MR CONNOLLY: Principally, we are not having anything to do with the Priorities Review Board, consigning that rather expensive and wasteful exercise in ideological bellybutton examination from a pro-privatisation perspective to the dustbin, whence it will be read only by Liberal Party members.
We are succeeding. On Friday, weather permitting, we will be opening the Tuggeranong bus station. We have undertaken very extensive improvements to that facility. In particular, we are installing some large safety glass screens so that, firstly, people who are waiting for buses will be protected from the wind and rain and, secondly, there will be an area where shopping trolleys or baby carriages will be safe from rolling down the slope.
Mr Berry: Very important, too.
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