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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-24 Daily Xml
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SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS

Mr VENNING (Schubert) (12:57): I move:

That this house condemns the state government for—

(a) failing to support South Australian small business by awarding five South Australian school bus contracts to an interstate company despite years of loyal service from local bus contractors; and

(b) causing uncertainty for school bus contractors whose contracts have yet to expire.

I only have three minutes, but I would just move the motion appearing on the Notice Paper in my name, in relation to the school buses. It has been an ongoing saga.

This Labor government has shown time and time again that they do not care about regional South Australia. The decision to award a large percentage of country bus contracts to an interstate company is a recent example. A pattern of weeding out small operators from the state's privately contracted bus systems now appears clear. Some operators who have lost their contracts have been in business for over 50 years and have been overlooked by Labor in favour of an interstate company.

There were 280 privately operated school bus runs called onto the open market in October last year. In the first round, 20 of the 45 contracts that were awarded were given to an interstate company. The Minister for Education said, during estimates on 30 June, that, of the contracts that had been awarded to that point, 47 per cent had been awarded to the incumbents. In relation to the procurement process, he said:

It does not appear to be unduly disadvantaging incumbents, with 47 per cent of the routes going to incumbents.

Well, that is taking a fair bit of licence. Let us examine the results of the first round: 20 of the 45 contracts were awarded to an interstate firm. Admittedly, it had operated in South Australia for a number of years, but the company had had only one school contract in the past—one—now they have 20. So, the government used that interstate company when coming up with that figure that 47 per cent of the contracts had been awarded to incumbents, which brings me to the benchmark figure. DECS have set a benchmark figure and, according to the accounting advice, it would not be viable into the future for these small local operators to continue a successful business at that price point.

The school bus runs in the Barossa were awarded recently and the trend that has emerged in other parts of the state continued. Most local operators lost their runs and they were awarded to the same interstate operator. How are these small local operators supposed to compete?

Can I just urge the house to support this motion. It is an issue and I note that we have a select committee in the other house. I hope that it will reveal what has happened here and we can return again and support these little local people who run these buses, including in your area, sir, in Gawler. I note there is one there that has closed down and is having a function this week, which I will attend.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Thompson.


[Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00]


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