House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-18 Daily Xml

Contents

Bus Services

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure. Does the minister stand by his statements to the house earlier today in question time regarding on-demand services being available in Sheidow Park in the electorate of Black?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning) (15:05): I'm not sure that the member is representing my previous answer correctly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: There is an on-demand bus service within the electorate of Black, which was the question I was being asked. To maybe jog the member's memory, the question was whether the member for Black supported the changes to bus routes in his electorate. In his electorate—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated one moment. Member for Kaurna, I'm going to ask you to leave for the remainder of question time under 137A for repeated interjections.

The honourable member for Kaurna having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: I'm trying to listen to the minister's answer. I anticipate that—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Well, the way things went yesterday, I know that this subject matter has been given a lot of attention by the opposition, so I would like to listen to what the minister has to say. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL: The answer is, yes, I do stand by my previous answer about the 17-odd new Go Zone stops in the member for Black's electorate, as well as the new on-demand bus service. Again, these are reforms that are tough; they are difficult. Any time you seek to make change in customer-focused and customer-facing environments change it is difficult, but we cannot continue to sit still and watch fewer and fewer people use public transport in South Australia.

Because of the flow-on effects to traffic congestion and the flow-on effects to the cost to the state budget to continue to upgrade roads where we need to create increased peak time capacity, as well as for the health and wellbeing of citizens, we need to reform this area. It's why we are undertaking this. It's why consultation is open until the end of July. I look forward to this being progressed so that we can see higher public transport usage here in South Australia.