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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-20 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

OPERATION LIGHTNING

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:09): I rise today to speak about Operation Lightning. This was launched by minister Fox in September last year—some five months ago. Well, members would not be surprised to hear that it has been an abject failure. Let me just explain what it is all about. Minister Fox had announced that she would have Operation Lightning—

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader will be seated. I had to deal with this vice with the member for Unley yesterday. Members are not to be referred to by their Christian name or their surname, and the reason that has long been in our standing orders is that to use their Christian names or surnames or something other than their ministerial title or electorate title has a propensity to encourage quarrels. Member.

Ms CHAPMAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Minister for Transport Services launched Operation Lightning last year to deal with fare evasion across the train network system. Members will not be surprised to hear that not only was it in a desperate circumstance last year when she launched Operation Lightning but, not surprisingly, the situation has gotten worse in the last three or four months.

From my perspective, I think there is no question: we should be calling this Operation Optional, as to whether people would even pay fares on trains. Members would know that, of the train services that are operating in South Australia, we now have a situation where, of those who are using the service, one in five do not pay for the ticket. That is an appalling situation and a further deterioration since the latest action by the government in an attempt to address this matter.

We also had the farcical situation where, yesterday, the minister claimed with respect to how fare evasion during October, November and December could have increased, what could be at fault and what the problem was, she then blamed the free substitute services in January of this year. She said that because there have been some free substitute services, people have taken that as an opportunity to not pay on trains.

So, instead of going on the train and not paying, you are apparently catching a bus which is free in January, notwithstanding that the data, which confirms that this whole operation has been a complete shambles, was actually data that was taken in October, November and December of last year. The minister needs to appreciate that this is a very serious problem.

For any members who are regular users of the train service, and there are a number here—I know the member for Fisher is a regular train user—I want him to have a look at the train in the morning. When he is standing in the carriage tomorrow morning—any member who is standing in the carriage—look around, because in an early morning situation where you are coming to work, if you look around a full carriage there will be 20 people on average in that carriage who have not paid the fare—20 people.

We already have a highly subsidised transport system in South Australia. To have a situation where a minister, knowing that the situation is bad, introduces a program which is clearly hopeless and then comes along and tries to explain it by suggesting that people are using free buses that operate in January in a time period in which the measurement does not even apply, we know is utterly absurd. Clearly, under the minister's watch, the number of people who do the wrong thing is increasing.

Fare evasion, of course, does not affect any of the people in the southern districts because they do not even have a train service at the moment to use. Those services are all shut down, because the government insists on doing the electrification on both tracks operating in those circumstances. The government clearly has the resources to deal with these problems. This is totally a management issue. This is the Minister for Transport Services' problem. This is on her plate, and it is not acceptable that she continues to fail South Australian public transport users and impose extra costs on the taxpayers of South Australia.

Under her watch, since the Premier has created this position, patronage is down, buses are late or do not run at all, complaints have gone through the roof, fare evasion on trains has gone up and the Noarlunga, Belair and Tonsley trains are not even operating. The situation is an absolute fiasco. It is a disgraceful circumstance where good people in South Australia who want to use the public transport system and who are committed to doing that are not only having to carry the bulk of the cost of people who are fare evading, but also the taxpayer is having to pick this up.

This is an unacceptable situation. The Minister for Transport Services has consistently failed in all subjects in her portfolio.

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