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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-07-02 Daily Xml
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Public Transport Privatisation

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. How will fares be set following the privatisation or outsourcing of the public transport rail network?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:55): Again, another opportunity for me to be able to debunk some of the bunkum that is out there at the moment. Mr Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —in South Australia government has set the fares forever, and what is interesting is that there has been some suggestion by some people in this parliament that fares are going to go up—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —as a result of this outsourcing.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: What is interesting here is let's look at the South Australian example of when buses were outsourced. Over that time and over the 16 years of the Labor government, even though the buses were outsourced the government still set the fares. That is exactly the way that it is going to operate going forward—exactly. South Australians have nothing to fear because government will continue to control the fare box.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is on two warnings.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There are those out there and on social media and at train stations saying, 'Oh, services are going to be cut and fares are going to go up.' That is completely not the case.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: That is absolute bunkum.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: And what's interesting here is that the private operators don't get the fare box. That fare box revenue comes to government. What happens is that there is a contract between government and a private operator to deliver a service, the quantity and quality of which is managed through the contract—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —but the fare box stays with government. The reason that people can feel comfortable with this is that it is exactly the way it has operated for 20 years without any issue, but what you've got is a group of people trying to scare South Australians about this.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: It is complete—

Mr Malinauskas: Your example, not ours.

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned for a second and final time.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: It is complete bunkum, and there are going to be those with egg on their face when this quite clearly isn't the case and we transition to this new model and services aren't cut and fares don't get jacked up through the roof, that we will operate in the same way that we have now. There was an opportunity, if this was not the right model, for things to have changed in 2011, or in 2005-06.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is a point of order, minister. The point of order is for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: Yes. With respect to the minister, he is starting to deviate. I ask you to come back to the substance of the question, please.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: We will control the fares, we will continue the frequency, we will continue to own the assets. We will be in control of our public transport network. We will work, though, to use global expertise to drive patronage forward, as has been the case when other jurisdictions have gone down this path.

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