Page 667 - Week 03 - Thursday, 15 March 2007
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Dr Foskey is correct. We need to place on the record that, while I do not expect the minister to wait for this committee to report on security at the interchanges and I expect to see him do more work more quickly on the concerns raised by constituents and by the TWU about safety at the interchanges, I also expect that this committee will look at those issues. The revised terms of reference that the minister has provided will allow that to happen.
This is a welcome change of heart from the minister. Last week, when we attempted to debate the bus timetable, we had an attempt by the minister to close down that debate by circulating an amendment that was just another self-congratulatory piece of work, which is standard for the Stanhope government on private members day. This is a real meeting of the minds. While I still have a few quibbles, this is a great victory for public transport and ACTION bus users in the territory. The opposition will be supporting Mr Hargreaves’s amendment.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (5.24): I and the government are pleased to support an inquiry into ACTION and ACTION buses. It is a very important issue and there is a very significant community debate occurring now in relation to ACTION, and certainly the new timetable.
I just want to respond to a few issues that have been raised in the debate. On the issue of timing, commentary has been made by both Dr Foskey and Mrs Dunne in relation to the reporting date of 30 June 2007. It has been brought forward somewhat. Certainly, as always in relation to the work of committees, that does not necessarily mean that it is set in concrete, but our hope and expectation are that the committee will conclude this report by that date, and I am sure they can.
Some of the government’s thinking in relation to that date was of course around the fact that the government is not standing still in relation to ACTION and its network. The minister has announced a number of initiatives and measures that he has been pursuing in response to community and customer feedback. There is always this tension with work that government does during the period of an inquiry—and this is an Assembly inquiry of which the government wish to be respectful—but, mindful of this, we are nevertheless pursuing a range of issues and measures such as the extension of selected peak services; the adjustment to routes, which continues and is a feature of constant change and response; the introduction, as the minister has said, of some additional services; and the implementation of on-platform ticket validation.
It is appropriate that I respond. There is always the temptation, and we see it in this debate of course, to never acknowledge the significant advances that have been made in relation to any government service delivery. The bald fact is—and it is an indisputable fact—that in the last 12 months patronage on ACTION has grown from 450,808 adult passengers in February 2006 to 562,561 adult passengers in February 2007. That is an increase, in the space of 12 months, of 112,000 adult passengers. That is a remarkable achievement.
Let us not have a debate of doom and gloom and beating and flagellating ACTION and the government in a situation in which in the last 12 months an additional 112,000
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