Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have had the honour to represent a large rural and regional electorate for long enough, and indeed I have lived in rural and regional Australia for long enough, to know that the failure of public transportation will have negative effects on our communities. Tonight I draw the attention of the House to the pending closure of bus services in my electorate, namely Coorong Coaches. Let me say that this is not the public transport of cities; it is a Monday to Friday, once a day in each direction bus service to Meningie and the Southern Mallee.

This bus service took children from Meningie to school in Murray Bridge and provided the only transport and assistance for the elderly to access local banks, chemists and grocery stores within Tailem Bend, Karoonda, Pinnaroo and Lameroo. Coorong Coaches took the elderly and community members with a disability to the hydrotherapy pool. It took older Australians who cannot drive and disadvantaged Australians who can no longer afford to run a motor vehicle to the optometrist, chiropractor, TAFE, unemployment schemes and day care for children and provided access to connecting transport services through to Adelaide for specialist medical services not available locally. It also took volunteers to their unpaid roles of contributing to the local community.

Coorong Coaches ran this service at a loss, because its operating costs exceeded the inadequate subsidy from the Rann Labor state government. The Rann Labor government subsidy was never increased to match the increase in bus sizes or services provided. Indeed, the Rann Labor government advice was to revert back to a 20-seat vehicle in the Meningie service and revert back to two days a week on the Southern Mallee. Coorong Coaches were unwilling to indiscriminately throw 20 children off the school bus and nor would they see the community disadvantaged, so they ran these services at a loss.

Coorong Coaches have been notified by the Rann state government that their services will be discontinued from 30 June this year. The new contractor will not operate these services. The loss of this critical public bus service will contribute to the decline in the economy of the region. The lifestyle of residents and business owners is adversely affected when people lose their mobility. In Adelaide, as indeed in cities across Australia, there is much outcry when one service is lost or they have to suffer the inconvenience of waiting an extra 10 minutes for the next service. In today’s Australian, there is a deal of complaint about northern suburbs Melbourne residents having to stand up on their city-bound trains. Rural and regional residents in my electorate do not have the daily transport services available to city people. They still pay taxes and registration fees and, because they travel greater distances, they contribute a great deal in fuel taxes.

Recent ABS data reports that households in rural areas typically had the highest average weekly expenditure on transport. One desperate constituent contacted me today to tell me that the Coorong Coaches service took her child with special education needs to school in Murray Bridge from her home in Meningie, 70 kilometres away. She said that, without the bus service, which finishes at the end of the month—just a couple of weeks away—her nine-year-old son would simply be unable to attend school. She cannot afford to commute 300 kilometres a day by car and she cannot afford to sell her house and move, but her son’s special needs mean he cannot attend the local school.

Last week Premier Rann announced his bombshell promise of billions of dollars towards public transport. While the registration and insurance charges of all South Australians will rise—including those of the rural and regional residents of my electorate—none of the funding is intended for rural and regional South Australia. It is all earmarked for metropolitan Adelaide. Most country businesses operate on a small scale and cannot compete on an equal footing with large city based operators who are able to scoop the cream off the best jobs. Coorong Coaches is one of these. However, these small businesses are still required in rural and regional areas to service the population in that area, so they need to be supported at all levels and kept solvent. When governments place untenable conditions on small businesses, as the Rann Labor government has done, and withdraw subsidies, businesses like Coorong Coaches must withdraw their unprofitable services. (Time expired)