Grievance Debate

SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (15:25): Thank you.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There will be no quarrels across the floor. Take it outside!

Mr PEDERICK: Thank you, Madam Speaker, and good luck, leader. In light of the questions today to the Minister for Education re contracts for private contractors for school bus services, I would like to make some comments. I will let the minister note that we are being heavily briefed on this side of the house by private bus operators who believe they are being unfairly dealt with.

For some of these bus operators their contracts finished up in January this year. It is a bit like the way this government deals with the state budget—they just roll them over. To this day there are still bus operators who had contracts that should have been finalised in January, who should have had new contracts presented to them, who are still basically operating on word-of-mouth whims. There are other operators whose contracts will wind up at the end of this month, who do not know where they are going. They want to provide a good service to their community. Some of the people who have contacted me are based in and operate in my electorate, and some are based just outside my electorate. These people employ many people who work for their services supplying buses for the school bus runs in the community.

From what I have heard from these operators and from the briefings that we have had from the Bus and Coach Association it appears to me—and the minister does not seem to be around it—that the minister is correlating the costing of the 300 buses of the yellow fleet, approximately—the government fleet—with the costings of running the private fleet, in light of the fact that the private fleet at least are trying to upgrade their buses to fit in with having seatbelts and safer buses to cart our students. However, at the end of the day people are being denied contracts to be rolled over.

The minister admitted today that there are other people who are as keen as mustard to edge out smaller operators. I have operators working in my patch who may only have one or two runs. It is vital income, and sometimes it supplements some of the other work they do in the community, but it also supplements the local mechanic in the community, and it also helps pay for bus drivers who work for these companies.

It goes back to August 2006, when the Minister for Education announced through a media release that all future seat buses would be seatbelt equipped, air-conditioned and have increased rollover strength. At the time, school bus operators, through the Bus and Coach Association Incorporated, fully supported and applauded the minister for this initiative and offered its cooperation throughout the implementation process. However, after four years of following numerous attempts by the Bus and Coach Association to engage DECS in negotiations, the minister's announcement has not eventuated.

Far too often school bus contractors have been dismissed by DECS, with bureaucrats failing to comprehend the real implications of deferring school bus contracts for both the families of South Australian schoolchildren and the school bus contractor. After many years of dedicated service to DECS, school bus operators are left to ponder, as the promise of new buses is a future that many school bus operators may never achieve whilst their destiny remains in the hands of disinterested bureaucrats. It is just so sad that this is going on. It comes from a party that does not understand business and how people need to operate.

I will just finish up with the following comments. Some school bus contracts, as I stated, have expired, with a lot of contracts to follow. School buses are fast approaching their 25-year age limit and must be removed from service. The future of school bus contractors, their businesses and the economic benefits to regional communities stagnate while the children of South Australia are not the recipients of the new school buses promised almost four years ago. My biggest problem with this is that I believe DECS is just comparing the cost of new buses to the yellow fleet, and it just does not add up.