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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3988 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I do not want to spend a lot of time this morning rehearsing the appalling litany of failure by this Government over the last three years in relation to public transport. Over the last three years, Mr Kaine and his Government have presided over a very vicious and sustained attack on public transport in this Territory, an attack on infrastructure which is at the very heart of the efficient and effective running of our city, infrastructure which is important to achieving social justice outcomes for our community, infrastructure which is important to achieving significant environmental goals in reducing greenhouse gases and in reducing the demand for road infrastructure, infrastructure which is fundamental to the effective working of any modern city.

What have we seen from the Liberals over the last three years? Mr Speaker, the Liberals came to government with the intention of taking $27m out of ACTION over three years. We have seen a cut of $12.7m to ACTION's budget by the end of the three years, an absolutely massive cut to ACTION's budget, which could be funded only by reductions in services and increases in fares. Mr Speaker, over the three years, we have seen some absolutely huge assaults on the level of service offered by ACTION. In my electorate, which is the electorate of Mr Kaine and Mr Kaine's predecessor Mr De Domenico, services were cut by 20 per cent by this Liberal Government. Across Canberra, services have been cut by over 10 per cent. Mr Speaker, only this year, the Liberal Government introduced cuts to the school bus services amounting to 10 per cent of services. In fact, they cut out any service carrying fewer than 20 passengers; that is, a half-full bus. This is their commitment to providing a service to the people of Canberra - cancelling services which were carrying 20 students.

Mr Speaker, this is the record of the Liberals. What has been the legacy of that record of cutting and cutting bus services and at the same time charging patrons 50 per cent more to use those services? The legacy of that has been a 25 per cent reduction in patronage in one financial year, 1996-97. Mr Speaker, it is not as if all of this has crept up on the Government and it has had no warnings about it. Over the last three years, the Labor Party has consistently sounded the warning, about the Government's approach to public transport, that, if you cut back services, it will inevitably lead to cuts in patronage; that, if you combine cuts in services with 50 per cent increases in fares, it will inevitably lead to cuts in patronage.

But what has been the Government's response to that? Mr Kaine's response was that it was all John Howard's fault because he had sacked all the public servants. That was why no-one was catching the bus anymore. It was not because the Liberals had cut 20 per cent of services in Tuggeranong and 10 per cent of services across Canberra; it was John Howard's fault. When I pointed out that in one 12-month period, from September 1995 to September 1996, patronage had dropped by 13 per cent, Mr Kaine's response was to say, "Mr Whitecross does not know what he is talking about. Patronage is up again". This is what he told us earlier this year. Yet, when the annual report came out, it showed that my 13 per cent assessment was actually conservative; that the situation was worse; that it was actually 25 per cent, not 13 per cent. So, Mr Speaker, while Mr Kaine was trying to tell us that the problems had all been fixed, the reality was that patronage had continued to decline.

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