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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 553 ..

MR KAINE: Instead of laughing, you might listen to the facts for once. At the same time as we introduced that new bus network we closed the Woden bus depot. That involved some drivers operating new bus routes. Of course, that requires some little settling-in period so that they get familiar with their routes and they can run on time and run the right schedule. Secondly, during the early parts of this year, as is traditional in the first few weeks of term, some school bus loads have not settled down and we have been augmenting some routes with extra buses until the patronage settles down and we know what the long-term usage is going to be.

An additional factor that has impacted is that because of the exceptionally hot weather conditions over the last week or so there has been an abnormal number of breakdowns. This, of course, has a consequential impact on services and the requirement for additional workshop maintenance. Despite those factors, I understand that ACTION have coped pretty well, but over the last two to three days some of those things have come to a head and there has been some impact. Despite all that, Tuggeranong has operated to 99.1 per cent of its scheduled services - not far away from the target - and, generally speaking, I think they have done pretty well.

As a result of the bus maintenance problems, some services were missed on Monday and Tuesday afternoons of this week. I understand that that was the result of drivers getting in their buses, discovering there was some problem with the buses and returning them to the depot for further maintenance. I understand, however, that today no services were missed for that reason anywhere in Canberra. The problem has been addressed, I am told, by transferring back into service buses that had been withdrawn for disposal. Some of those buses have been put back into work to fill the gap, and there have been some additional workshop operating hours to close the gap.

All in all, I think ACTION have dealt with the problems, which are not entirely unexpected but which do place a load on some sectors of the network from time to time, as is the case now. I think that management has dealt with those matters satisfactorily, but I have ensured that the senior operational staff continue to monitor to make sure that there is no major failure of the service.

MRS LITTLEWOOD: I ask a supplementary question. Can the Minister say whether the school services in the Tuggeranong Valley have been affected at all in this period?

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, my advice is that no school service has been missed as a result of these problems.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, I refer to an article in the Canberra Times on 24 February 1997 in which it was reported that AOFR had been asked by your Government to report on its current operations and whether the company is meeting the terms of its assistance agreement, reported to be worth about $1.2m. Chief Minister, what provisions were made in the assistance agreement to prevent AOFR's parent, ADC Telecommunications Inc., from setting up rival manufacturing operations elsewhere?

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