Page 4306 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2005
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launch. He joined a very large and enthusiastic crowd of cyclists in Canberra—people who, unlike those opposite, have an interest in sustainable transport and who all warmly welcomed the bike rack trial.
The government has honoured its commitment to put bike racks onto buses in Canberra. We have now spent the appropriated amount of approximately $345,000 to install bike racks on buses. Those bike racks have now been installed on 55 buses in the ACTION fleet and this will grow to 65 buses in total by the end of the year. The bike rack trial allows Canberrans to cycle and then use public transport for a journey in Canberra. That is great news for expanding the range of choice available to Canberrans in getting around their city. Not all of us are particularly keen on doing a 20 or 30 kilometre round trip by bike every day. But if you can take a shorter journey and then pop your bike onto the bus for the remainder of that journey, that certainly gives you greater flexibility. Equally, if it is a bit too hot at the end of the day, especially in summer, or if it is a miserable winter day, you certainly have the option now of putting your bike onto the bus.
I would like to thank all of those who have been engaged in putting this program together. I especially thank the staff in the engineering and safety areas of ACTION and the delegates of members of the Transport Workers Union who have worked through the issues and worked hard to see this trial become operational. Of course, I would like to thank those who have advocated consistently for this trial and who have assisted the government in getting to this point, in particular the Conservation Council of the South-East Region and Canberra and Pedal Power.
Mrs Dunne: It has taken you four years.
MR CORBELL: Mrs Dunne cannot ever help herself. There is always a negative. It does not matter what, it does not matter how, it does not matter when, there is always a negative. That says a lot about Mrs Dunne but it does not for one moment, from my perspective, detract from the real benefits that will derive from having bike racks on buses. We are only the second city in the country to put in place a comprehensive program such as this and I look forward to many Canberrans taking advantage of the program in the months and years ahead.
Budget—public service savings
MRS DUNNE: My question is to the Treasurer. Treasurer, you have proposed that government agencies should identify saving options of between three and five per cent in the run-up to the 2006-07 budget.
Mr Quinlan: How do you know that?
MRS DUNNE: I can read the paper, and you have said it on a number of occasions. Is it correct that savings of this magnitude would result in savings of somewhere between $52 million and $87 million? Further, if that is the correct amount of money, will you only be able to endorse new expenditure proposals if you make those savings?
MR QUINLAN: There is a lot more to the input and output to the budget than simply those lines. There is a whole raft of revenue lines and not all of them have slowed. Not necessarily so, I suppose, is the answer.
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