Bus Services

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:34): Supplementary: can the minister advise the house whether these changes are required to meet the government's $46 million worth of public transport savings?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:34): There was no specific savings task that was applied to these new contracts. What it essentially did is, through the new bus contracting arrangements that I note that didn't go so well back in 2011, when the contract was awarded to Light-City Buses, and in fact I think we had a dedicated transport services minister, Mr Speaker, the Hon. Chloe Fox, whose sole job it was to drive patronage growth—

The Hon. D.J. Speirs interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Environment is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —across the network. In fact, she managed to make it go backwards. So there is no specific savings task that was attributed to this. In fact, the reason that it was done was, using the existing bus operators that we had as part of the tender process, we worked with them about what a redesign of the bus network—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —could be, and that's what is out for consultation and for feedback at the moment. These reforms—and again I do understand that in any reforms such as this that there are winners and then there are people that are going to find it—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —more difficult. But what we need to do here is go with what works, for—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —the most amount of people possible. Having a bus stop at a bus stop where an average of zero passengers get on on a daily basis doesn't seem like a good use of taxpayers' money, and it's why we have needed to redesign this network.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Badcoe, please.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: I think that as spenders of taxpayers' money we need to always be looking at ways that we can do things more efficiently. Part of these changes means that we can reinvest in these higher frequency corridors. Again, that is going to help to drive patronage on our bus network and, as no less than the RAA comment, it's also going to have a positive effect across our broader road network for bus users as well as car users right across our city.