Page 4288 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 22 September 2010

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MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Hargreaves. Indeed, I acknowledge Mr Hargreaves’s role in the decision taken to purchase those buses. Mr Hargreaves’s further question, of course, raises a very important point. A very important point of difference is that the buses have been funded, the orders are in and the buses are being delivered. We are modernising the fleet, we are replacing the fleet and we are ensuring that it has the capacity to ensure that we meet the disability requirements in relation to access that are a very important part of the public transport network.

Mr Hargreaves points out and draws attention to one significant area of massive investment by this government in public transport. But it is not just about the investment infrastructure. It is about the range and the raft of other issues that we are seeking to deal with comprehensively and holistically and in a way that no other government has ever done. It is right and it is fair and it is true to say—

Opposition members interjecting—

MR STANHOPE: I give the Liberal Party some credit for the attempts that it made when in government to deal with the industrial issues that we are currently in negotiations with the TWU around, but when the going got tough and the Liberal Party went to water—

Mr Coe: You sacked John; you sacked Simon.

MR STANHOPE: No, we are talking about the Liberal Party. When you were last in government and you made your attempt at dealing with the very same issues that we are dealing with now, you went to water. You caved in, you bailed out and you left it for some other government at another time and on another day to deal with the issues that you did not have the backbone to confront—all of the industrial issues that pertained—

Opposition members interjecting—

MR STANHOPE: The going got tough and the Liberal Party left the field, as they always do.

Environment—energy policy

MS HUNTER: My question is to the Minister for Energy and is in regard to consultation on the government’s energy policy. Minister, consultation on the government’s draft energy policy closed in February this year prior to the government announcing its 40 per cent target and prior to the release of two consultant reports commissioned by your department to evaluate how the ACT might achieve emissions reductions. Given the public interest that has been shown in the 40 per cent target, is the government intending to engage in any further consultation on the energy policy prior to its release?

MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Hunter for the question. We have conducted, obviously, consultation on the draft policy and the government is now concluding its policy work


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