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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-21 Daily Xml
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SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Education. Why is DECS insisting that longstanding contracts for private school bus operators, now due for renewal, must be put out for general tender, when the chosen option for other transport contracts, such as the recent Adelaide metropolitan public transport contract, was selective tender? Sixty-five private operating school bus contracts will expire this year, with up to 150 over the next year and a half. Despite numerous approaches to DECS by the Bus and Coach Association and a full submission provided to them by nationally recognised consultants in February 2009, private operators have had only delays and increasing hostility from the department and no way to properly plan for their business futures, employees or the cost effective services they provide for country and regional communities in South Australia.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Early Childhood Development) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for his question. It is a good question, but it proceeds from a bit of a false premise.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Because you keep asking questions based on false premises.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The question assumes that we have made a decision about the matter. Indeed, we have not made a decision about the matter. The very points that were made in the question and the points that are made by a particular section of the—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: And we may not. I have not made that decision yet. The points that have been made by the member for Chaffey are similar points that have been made by the members for Mount Gambier and Frome, who have chosen to make representations to me outside of this place. I have met with the relevant associations that represent the bus operators in question—I think even the member for MacKillop might have actually made representations to me as well—and they make the point that, in this process of renewal of bus contracts, that there should be some regard paid to the fact that existing operators have made significant investments, or may need to make further significant investments, and that is a cause of great concern to those particular operators.

I have certainly taken it into account. I am not a 'tender things out at all costs' sort of person. I believe that in some circumstances a selective tender process may be a more prudent way to go for a whole range of factors, but we need to also weigh up value for money. The truth is that there are some private bus operators amongst those who are represented by these associations that also have ambitions to grow their businesses. So, they actually want to take up extra operations. This is not a simple—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No. There are some existing South Australian operators that want to add to their existing bus routes.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No: existing private operators that want to add to their existing bus routes. So, implicit in your question, and your criticism of me for not taking a decision immediately to not go out to tender and simply roll over the existing contracts, is that we should deprive some of those existing contractors of the opportunity to grow their businesses. We need to take some care about that in any decision we make. I have asked the department to do a sensible, pragmatic thing, that is, to carry out a two-stage process. There are still some decisions that need to be taken in government, but I am prepared to tell the house my perspective on it.

I think it would be sensible to have a two-stage process where we might initially, through an expressions-of-interest process, see what appetite there is for these bus routes. It will be the case that, for many bus operators, they will be the only people seeking to offer themselves for certain isolated routes. For those people we could confirm pretty quickly that we should carry out a select tender process and negotiate with them for the rolling over of their existing contracts, because to do otherwise would not be sensible.

That would reduce the anxiety for those existing operators, and then we would be left, I suppose, with choices about what we did with the balance of the operators. We need to balance value for money. Also, we need to balance the fact that many of these bus operators have formed good relationships with local school communities. Many of them are not just transport operators: they are people who have built strong personal relationships with the students and, obviously, that is good for the safety of the students and the confidence of their parents. It is not a straightforward issue. I understand the anxieties, but I am working through this issue. I am conscious of the representations that have been made, and I am sure we will come to a sensible landing.

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