❓ Ravlich questions the Minister for Transport on the government's election promise to introduce free off-peak public transport for seniors and pensioners by December 14th. O'Brien acknowledges the commitment but cites technical difficulties with the SmartRider system as a barrier to meeting the deadline.
AnsweredQoN 64Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
SENIORS AND PENSIONERS — FREE OFF-PEAK PUBLIC TRANSPORT 64. Hon LJILJANNA RAVLICH to the Minister for Transport: I refer to the election promise made by the government in its 100-day plan to introduce free public transport by 14 December for age pensioners, seniors with disabilities and support pensioners between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends and public holidays. (1) Will this election commitment be met by 14 December; and, if not, why not? (2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
SENIORS AND PENSIONERS — FREE OFF-PEAK PUBLIC TRANSPORT
I refer to the election promise made by the government in its 100-day plan to introduce free public transport by 14 December for age pensioners, seniors with disabilities and support pensioners between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends and public holidays. (1) Will this election commitment be met by 14 December; and, if not, why not? (2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(1) Will this election commitment be met by 14 December; and, if not, why not? (2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
SENIORS AND PENSIONERS — FREE OFF-PEAK PUBLIC TRANSPORT
I refer to the election promise made by the government in its 100-day plan to introduce free public transport by 14 December for age pensioners, seniors with disabilities and support pensioners between 10.00 am and 3.00 pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends and public holidays. (1) Will this election commitment be met by 14 December; and, if not, why not? (2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(1) Will this election commitment be met by 14 December; and, if not, why not? (2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(2) If not, will the minister take responsibility for failing Western Australian seniors and disability pensioners and explain why he has broken this promise? (3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(3) Has the minister personally met with the Premier and/or the Treasurer to put a case forward for honouring this commitment, and what was the nature of those discussions? (4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(4) When will the member, as the responsible minister, deliver on this election promise? Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied: I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
I thank the honourable member for her quite encyclopaedic question! She is requiring an extraordinary amount of information. If it is the will of the house, I will attempt to do justice to what is an extraordinary catalogue of information that she has asked for. (1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
(1)-(4) The first part of the question stated that there was an undertaking given through the election campaign to introduce free travel at certain times to certain classes of pensioners from 14 December. I would be interested in the honourable member telling me where she has sourced that particular date during election material. Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon Ken Travers : The government said it would do it in its first 100 days! The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The PRESIDENT : Order, members! Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich has asked a question of the Minister for Transport. The Minister for Transport is seeking to answer the question, but he is being interrupted. It is up to the Minister for Transport to determine whether he wants to continue. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : I certainly do not want to avoid the matter at all. There was an undertaking given by both the Labor and Liberal Parties during the course of the election campaign to introduce a system of free fares for certain classes of pensioners at certain times of the week on public transport, particularly in the metropolitan area. The Premier indicated subsequent to the election that he would like to see this matter progressed before Christmas; which, I might add, is a lot better than the Labor Party ever indicated or intended to do. As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
As the minister responsible, I will take responsibility for this matter. I think the honourable member asked whether I will take responsibility for failure if I somehow fail to introduce this. Yes, I will take responsibility. That is why I have been working with the responsible agency to implement this particular promise. There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
There are some technical difficulties that make it impossible to have a changeover of the SmartRider system, upon which our metropolitan public transport services rely, before 14 December—it is quite impossible. If we were to implement the free fares regime prior to Christmas, on 14 December, it would require a diversion of those passengers away from using their SmartRider cards and to using some other interim system. That interim system would be quite a simple one. It would involve presenting the relevant pension card. That is not an idea that is new to Western Australian travellers seeking to obtain concessions on the bus or the train; they show their pension card. Where there could be a problem is that — Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon Ken Travers : Which is the SmartRider card. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : No, the pension — The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The PRESIDENT : Order, members! This is not a time for debate. A member of the opposition has asked the minister to answer a number of questions; it was a very long question. The minister is giving an answer that many members are interested in, but, unfortunately, there are some members who cannot resist the temptation to interrupt. Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN : For the benefit of the member, I was referring to the relevant pension card, not to the SmartRider card. I will not go into the technicalities of that now because I do not want to use up the house’s time in question time. Suffice to say, by the nature of the interjection, the matter is more complex than anticipated. A problem could then occur when we try to change back to a SmartRider-based system. In some cases passengers may, perhaps by nature of their disability or advanced years, have a little difficulty coping with the changing backwards and forwards from different systems, where we ask them one month to use a totally different form of engaging in public transport and then the next month get them to change back again. That could be highly problematic and we do not want to upset our patrons. The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
The matter is before cabinet for consideration. I am not using that as an excuse not to discuss it any further. I am quite happy for the opposition’s spokesman to discuss this with me away from the chamber. It will be seen that there is nothing underhanded involved in what we are doing. The considerations of the Premier, and indeed of my government colleagues and of myself, are that we do not want to upset people or cause confusion in a system that is actually designed to be of benefit to people and to provide concessions. What I will be announcing, when cabinet has made its consideration, is a system to implement this promise; which, I tell members now, is going to be better than what the Labor Party had on offer or contemplated or was in train prior to the election. That is how I will keep faith with the Australian people.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.