BUS TIMETABLES

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Transport Services. Given the Minister for Transport's admission yesterday that the government sets bus timetables, will the Minister for Transport Services immediately—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Order! Point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Transport, point of order.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: To phrase a question as a minister's 'admission' is to argue. I answered a question yesterday; I admitted to nothing.

Ms CHAPMAN: I'll rephrase that.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Rephrase it.

Ms CHAPMAN: Given the Minister for Transport's confession yesterday that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I would ask the member for Bragg not to be provocative. If you ask a political question you will get a political answer. Would you just use the word 'statement'.

Ms CHAPMAN: —that the government sets the bus timetables, will the Minister for Transport Services immediately amend the bus timetables to create certainty for people who catch our buses? The minister stated yesterday that she would be waiting until July to amend bus timetables. The current timetables are clearly not practical and cannot be met, resulting in unpredictable waiting times for the commuters.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! That was a—

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Again, it's a comment: 'clearly not practical'.

The SPEAKER: Yes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Explanations are to explain the question, not to make a political statement.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has a lot of time I can attempt to explain it to him.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport Services.

The Hon. C.C. FOX (Bright—Minister for Transport Services) (14:46): I thank the member for Bragg for this question. We are working towards timetable changes that will occur in July. Those changes cannot be made overnight. We have received submissions from all of the three contractors about what they think would be a good outcome in terms of timetabling. We are looking at the 20 worst performing routes to see how best they can be fixed. Timetabling is not something where you just wave a wand and fix it, it involves serious mathematical equations—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni: Get Einstein to do it for you!

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pederick: The buses worked in '78!

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Hammond! You will leave the chamber for 15 minutes.

The honourable member for Hammond having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: Minister.

The Hon. C.C. FOX: As I was saying, timetabling is a complicated process. There are various mathematical equations involved. As I said, there are submissions from the three contractors. We have timetable changes or service changes every six months. We are working as quickly as we can within those parameters to get these timetables changed and we have made it very clear that we have a commitment to doing so.