Question Time

Bus Services

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier received negative feedback from more than one member of his own party room about the program of cuts to buses announced on the weekend?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:02): I receive feedback from a lot of people. I don't go into personal discussions, but what I know is that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —plenty of people have an opinion on public transport in South Australia—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and most people appreciate that there is massive room for improvement. One of the reasons why in our first budget since coming to government we have invested—I think it's getting close now to $1 billion—in public transport in South Australia to improve services, one of the reasons why we are investing money, one of the reasons why we are listening to the people of South Australia, one of the reasons why we are benchmarking best practice interstate and internationally is because we want to have more passengers onto our public transport in South Australia.

What we have been doing is we have been listening to them about the types of things that they would like. We have seen what has happened previously. We had more people on public transport a decade ago than when we came to government two years ago, and that's a shameful position because we are responsible for spending the taxpayers' dollars effectively. When you see passenger numbers diminishing year after year after year, you can either choose to sweep the problem under the carpet, like we saw over 16 years under Labor, or you can take the issue on and you can address the issue. That's exactly and precisely what we have done in South Australia.

We are not shying away from getting feedback from the people of South Australia. In fact, we have feedback coming in right through to 31 July this year. We are not announcing one day what we are doing and putting it in place the next day. We are going to listen to that feedback, and those changes will be made much later in the year. But the overall objective of what we are trying to do is to get more people onto public transport.

One of the fundamental things that the people of South Australia say to us is that they want an efficient service. They want a service that gets them to where they want to be as efficiently as possible. Surely, that should be something that we all join in. Surely, that should be something that everybody in this place actually wants to do.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Playford!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We know the alternative approach. The alternative approach is just to say, 'Well, nothing to see here.' Of course, the people of South Australia voted with their feet, they got off public transport and they got into their vehicles. If you want people on public transport, you've got to make sure it's efficient and what we are doing—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with the reforms that are currently for consideration is seeking feedback from the people of South Australia. Those reforms are going to create more than 1,000 new Go Zone bus stops in South Australia and that's absolutely fantastic.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: More than 200,000 people will be living within 800 metres, not an average of 800, which was put out there by our political opponents who are not that interested in giving a clear and precise picture of what's going on. In fact, it is up to 800 metres.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What this will do is it will encourage more South Australians to get back onto public transport. We have heard the opposition go on about public transport over the last two years. What we need to do, though, is to take a look at what they did in those 16 years: lots and lots of promises, very few of them actually delivered, and the people of South Australia voting—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with their feet to get off public transport. Well, enough is enough. It's now time to put the commuters in South Australia first, improve the services, get people back onto public transport and relieve congestion on our roads—that's our focus in South Australia.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the Leader of the Opposition, I call the following members to order: the member for West Torrens, the member for Elizabeth, the member for Badcoe and the Minister for Primary Industries. Leader.