Grievance Debate

Public Transport Privatisation

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:10): I welcome the opportunity to be able to make a contribution to an incredibly important public policy question that South Australians now have to face, and that is the issue of whether or not we privatise our train and tram network here in South Australia. Make no mistake: this is an essential public service. This is right up there with public schools and public hospitals. Every single day, 70,000 people use our public train and tram network. They use it for basics—getting to school and getting to work.

These are people who rely upon this service and who without it may not be able to make a contribution in our society or in our economy. This is a service that vulnerable members of our community use on a daily basis. The elderly rely on this service, the disabled rely on this service, and they get that service from the government of South Australia because they know that service is there to deliver for them—not to deliver a profit to another company, not to deliver a profit to shareholders who may well be living overseas.

This is a critical government service that has been delivered in this state for a long time with an exceptional level of performance. The minister's own survey demonstrates that well in excess of 80 per cent of people who use our train and tram network are overall satisfied with that service, which begs the question: why do we have a minister who is going out of his way to talk down that service? Why is he seeking to demean those people who work in this service and deliver it with passion and effectiveness for the people of South Australia?

The answer lies in this government's ideological predisposition to privatisation. This is the same old classic neoliberal agenda that we thought we had dispensed with 16 years ago, but we were wrong because it is back. The people of South Australia would be forgiven for thinking otherwise when they went to the ballot box at the last state election. Front of mind amongst voters' considerations would have been what this now Premier said he would do and what this now Premier said he would not do.

What he said he would do was deliver lower costs and better services. That is what he promised he would do. How is that stacking up specifically in regard to public transport? There are certainly other areas of public policy that we could traverse in that policy promise, but let's just look at public transport. Lower costs? No. What we have seen since is a dramatic increase in public transport fares for a lot of commuters, increases that well and truly exceed the rate of inflation. For those people who used to rely upon the two-section fare to get to and from work or their home, that has been completely abolished. That can amount to an additional cost in excess of $800 a year.

What have we heard from the member for Adelaide regarding the abolition of the two-section fare? Absolutely nothing. The residents of Adelaide should know that the member for Adelaide seeks to impose upon them a higher cost to get to and from their workplace. What about the better services element of public transport? Better services? There are $46 million worth of cuts being imposed upon public transport. That is what they said they would do; they clearly have not delivered.

What did the Premier say he would not do? This is probably the most important thing. The Premier said that he did not have a privatisation agenda. That was crystal clear and unequivocal, on the record, recorded live in colour: 'We don't have a privatisation agenda.' Since then, we have seen a maximum-security prison privatised. We have seen hospital patient transfers in the north-eastern suburbs privatised. Silence from the member for Newland; silence from the member for King. We have seen the potential privatisation of SA Pathology. Now what we have is the guaranteed privatisation of the train and tram network.

This cannot be characterised as anything other than a broken promise from this Premier, which calls into question the credibility of this Premier and this government's true privatisation agenda. How can South Australians take them seriously when it comes to SA Water? How can South Australians take them seriously when it comes to delivering better services that are orientated for people and not for profit?