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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4008 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

as is done in other places. I think all those things are important elements of an intelligent integrated transport strategy. I am quite happy to support that amendment. I think it adds to the motion and I commend Ms Horodny for moving it.

I believe it is all the more important to carry that amendment when you consider the Minister's apparent understanding of the need for an integrated strategy. In the Estimates Committee earlier this year Mr Kaine was asked, by Ms Horodny, I believe, whether he was concerned that car usage was increasing and greenhouse gas emissions were increasing, and whether he felt that had any implications for the public transport system. Mr Kaine's response was, "No, that has nothing to do with me; that is an environment matter. That has nothing to do with the public transport system". I am sure Ms Horodny recalls that exchange. That was an absolutely extraordinary statement from a Minister responsible for public transport; that it is not his problem if, as a result of his Government's cuts to public transport, more people are driving cars emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is not his problem; it is not his concern; that is a matter for the Minister for the Environment. What the Minister for the Environment is meant to do about it I do not know, but the Minister responsible for transport could have done something about it if he took the issue seriously.

The problem is that the Minister responsible for transport does not understand the concept of an integrated transport strategy. The Minister does not even understand how to run a bus system, so putting some pressure on the Government to start thinking about integrated transport planning might be a good idea. Quite frankly, considering the pace at which Mr Kaine does things, there will be a Labor government before he gets the chance to get very far with an integrated transport strategy. I can assure the Greens that a Labor government after the next election will take seriously the issue of transport. We will have an integrated transport strategy. Unlike Mr Kaine, who thinks that car use and greenhouse gas emissions have nothing to do with him, we believe that they are inextricably linked. The public transport system is inextricably linked to the whole planning of the city. It is inextricably linked to car usage, greenhouse gas emissions and all those other issues.

Labor does take these issues seriously, and that is the reason why I am so disappointed that Ms Horodny has gone down the path of trying to tar us with the same brush as the Liberals. I understand politics. I understand that the Greens and the Independents have to say for electoral purposes that the Liberals and the Labor Party are all the same. At every opportunity they try to put us in the same box. I would have thought that it would be more honest, that it would show more integrity, that it would show their ability to call things how they see them and give credit where credit is due, if the Greens had been willing to acknowledge that on the issue of public transport the Labor Party has a distinctly better record and distinctly better policies than the Liberals. I think that would have been fair. I urge Ms Horodny to reconsider her amendment No. 1 in the interests of a fair motion.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. It being 12.34 pm, the debate is interrupted, in accordance with standing order 74.

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