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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-13 Daily Xml
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Bus Services On Demand

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:36): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. What is the government subsidy per passenger for the minister's on-demand bus service trial?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (14:36): The answer to that question is: we don't know yet how many people are going to use the services.

An honourable member: My God!

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens will not blaspheme in this house.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: A point of order, sir: I did not blaspheme. I take gross offence at that, sir.

The SPEAKER: I am sorry. I thought I heard someone say, 'Oh my God!'

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: That's not blasphemy, sir.

The SPEAKER: Well, okay. I would ask such expressions to please not be made. The member for West Torrens has asked his question. I will listen to the minister's answer, thank you.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: My seven-year-old daughter tells me off when I use that phrase. She certainly thinks it's blasphemy. We use 'Oh my goodness!' in our house. It's a good way to get around it. The X factor here is: how many people are going to use this service? We provide a bucket of money to undertake this trial. It has some operating costs; it obviously has some—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member, please.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: —capital costs that go with it. But this is what happens when you undertake a trial. You don't know how it's going to turn out. It's why you undertake a trial. What's interesting in this case is that we are going to be running the LinkSA service up in the Barossa based on a rough cost recovery basis, or what we think could in the end turn into a cost recovery basis, understanding that there is some up-front subsidy that we will need to provide to get this thing off the ground. In Mount Barker, it will integrate with the existing Metro service where, for those who use it to get from where they are to the shopping centre, they will be able to do it cheaper than they can now. But those who then go on to connect to a service to get to Adelaide will pay a little bit more than they do now.

Essentially, we have put some maths together. We are going to go out and undertake this trial and use these two test beds—one where we are competing against a fixed-route service, one where we are doing it in isolation—which, to my mind, is the only trial I have seen where it hasn't been competing against a fixed-route service. That, for the first time, will show us what it looks like without having to compete with an existing fixed-route service.

This is actually really exciting. I would have thought that this was something that both sides of this parliament could get around to have a look at a new idea. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe the imaginations of some don't extend to looking ahead and instead prefer to look behind and look to the way the service has operated in the past, 'Hey, as long as we don't change anything, we won't upset anybody and nothing will ever change,' and that gentle decline that South Australia has seen over the 16 long and torturous years could just continue. But that is not the ambition that this government has.

We want to see this system move forward, which is why we are undertaking outsourcing. We know where it has worked in other jurisdictions and has led to increased bums on seats. We know that by providing capital injection we can improve services and encourage patronage, which again gets more bums on seats. If we are right about these on-demand bus trials it, too, will add to the suite of measures that we have to seek to improve this service so that South Australians can look forward to a more connected and a more engaged future.

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