Public Transport Privatisation

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:57): Can the minister outline to the house examples—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Which minister?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure.

Mr Pederick: 22 years!

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is warned.

An honourable member: Chuck him out!

The SPEAKER: I might. Member for West Torrens, could you please start again from the start. Let's hear the question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. Can the minister outline to the house any examples of the better services or amenity commuters will receive as a result of his privatisation or outsourcing of the rail network services?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:58): I think we can take the yardstick as being bums on seats. I think that is the yardstick that we should be using, because people are voting with their wallets and with their feet to use a service, and the best example we can give is here in Adelaide in that after the outsourcing of buses in 2000 we saw a seven million passenger per annum increase over the ensuing years—seven million more people per annum choosing to use that service as a result of these changes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: That's what happens—patronage grows.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have the question.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I know it's hard—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Again, to step back, the decision that is made by individuals about whether or not they use public transport services is a complex one. They want clean and safe services, they want reliable services, they want increased frequency of services and they want it done at a price that they consider reasonable. If all those things match up, patronage grows. What we see at the moment is that—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: I didn't ask about patronage numbers. I asked about better services and amenities.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate. The question was about how fares are to be set and then it was followed by examples of better services. I believe the minister is currently answering in a manner which is germane, but I will continue to listen. I was interrupted then. I ask members to cease interjecting. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: If this complex equation, this series of factors that people define for themselves as better services, adds up, they use the service. At the moment, one half of the equation works—that is, we have a cost-effective fare structure here in Adelaide. Catching public transport in Adelaide compared with the rest of the nation is cheap. If price was the only factor, why do we have the lowest patronage in the country? Because the other side of the equation—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The other side of the equation quite clearly doesn't work. There is price and then there is the value of the service that people see. That's the part of the equation we need to improve. We cannot simply sit still and expect that we are going to get a different result. What we have seen right across the globe is that when this outsourcing happens patronage grows. People make the decision, through the provision of better services that are more reliable, that are safe and clean and more frequent, that that service works better for them.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Here is the opportunity to be able to deliver that. We know what our customers want because we weren't too scared to ask them.

Mr Picton: Did you ask them about privatisation?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We did ask them.

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: At the end of the day, they said, 'We want better reliability, we want better frequency and we want you to deal with overcrowding.' In relation to overcrowding, I talk quite specifically about our train network and the fact that our Belair line, which is the most loved train line on our network, has at the other end of the scale the Gawler line, which is the least loved train line on our network because of issues in relation to frequency and overcrowding.

It is why this government made sure that we got the final $220 million of a $615 million commitment to electrify the Gawler line, to buy new trains which are going to deliver a 15 per cent increase in capacity to deal with the exact issues that our customers told us that they want us to deal with. This is how you deliver reform in the public transport space. Again, we are more than prepared to look right around the country.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Here is the other part of the equation. In the last financial year, this government delivered more service kilometres than we have done in the preceding three years. We actually delivered more services that led to more patronage—1.6 million more bums on seats—over the course of the 2018 financial year. That is a clear example of green shoots across our public transport system network.

The SPEAKER: I will come back to the member for West Torrens. The member for Finniss.