Bus Contract

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government. Can the minister update the house on how the new bus contract is delivering jobs and innovation in our public transport network?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:50): I thank the member for King for her question and note her community's—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —real desire to grapple with and see improved services in the north-east in terms of our bus network.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wright, you can leave for the remainder of question time.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: How many trains in Golden Grove?

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier is warned.

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright, be quiet and go.

The honourable member for Wright having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The buses have been outsourced in the north-east for about 20 years, but don't let the truth get in the way.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Education!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The reality is that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister, be seated for one moment. If this continues I will be sending members out. The Minister for Transport has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: Essentially, the former government had undertaken to start a tender process in relation to acquiring new buses for our network, a contract that needs to deliver today but also needs to be able to see forward for the next decade and what innovation and technology is going to change over the course of that contract.

As a government, we chose to cancel that tender process because it didn't deliver properly on the needs and the aspirations of this government in regard to public transport. By going back out to tender on a new formatted tender document, we have been able to achieve huge advances in what bus technology we are going to be able to engage with as part of the contract.

What we came to was a 340-bus contract over the next 10 years awarded to a local company, essentially a local consortium, Scania, in conjunction with Precision Buses, with Scania providing the chassis and the know-how and Precision putting the buses together. Precision employs a lot of ex-Holden workers and is now supporting 100 staff through this project.

So good are our buses now, and off the back of the government's commitment to a 10-year contract, we are actually now exporting South Australian buses into Canberra—40 beautiful blue buses which, when I was down there a few weeks ago, were rolling off the line to be able to fulfil that contract. In discussions that I have had with minister Steel over in Canberra, who is really enjoying the product we have been sending him and was excited to see his buses rolling off the line, I suggested if he needed any more we would be more than happy to build more buses here in South Australia to ship over to the east coast.

The technology that we are using in these buses is going to improve services for South Australians. These new buses run off new Euro 6 engines, meaning that they are cleaner and greener than anything that's come before. It takes us to the next level when it comes to the bus service that we are delivering. They are more fuel efficient, with lower exhaust emissions, and provide that better, more comfortable service. On top of that, they also have USB charging points. I know that for time-poor gen X and gen Y, it gives them the opportunity to be able to plug in their phone whilst riding to work. Of course, those of us who are a little bit older know to plug in our phones overnight, but—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I've got a few grey hairs. We are providing that better service to South Australians but, more than that, what we have done through this contract is provide the opportunity for us to see step changes as technology comes through. So there are points in the contract at which we can upgrade to the newest and latest technology.

We will see later this year the first demonstration hybrid bus being delivered into South Australia using Precision and Scania technology to again drive our bus fleet forward and deliver innovation and new technology that is going to provide better services for South Australians. I know that that is something the government is interested in and I know that that is something that the member for King and the residents of the north-east are interested in, and as they see these buses rolling off the line they will know that they have a government that is committed to delivering better services for them.