weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

More documents

Recommendations

Info

23 Aug 2005 Matters of Public Interest 2575 clinical importance to their patients. The VMOs were not told, let alone consulted, that secret waiting lists were being introduced. Senior VMOs sitting in specialist outpatients in Queensland hospitals found out when patients turned up with letters telling them that they had been placed onto the secret waiting lists. These are the doctors who are responsible for the lives and health of patients, yet they have no opportunity to have input into that. Public Transport, Springwood Electorate Ms STONE (Springwood—ALP) (12.34 pm): The other day I was again reminded of the bus services Logan had under a National Party government. People would stand on the Pacific Highway and flag down a Greyhound bus. People’s choice of destination was the Gold Coast or Brisbane city. Shailer Park residents have told me that where the Logan Hyperdome stands today is where the people of Shailer Park would flag down a Greyhound bus or perhaps a Pioneer bus on its way to the Gold Coast or to Brisbane. Today, the Logan Hyperdome has a bus interchange and can now boast an $800,000 upgrade to that bus interchange. That $800,000 will be spent on improvements to the Logan Hyperdome bus interchange, which will include better seating, shelter, information, accessibility and safety. There is even more good news for public transport in the Springwood electorate. Logan and Beenleigh residents will benefit from a $4 million boost to public transport services over the next three years. The boost to services, added to an existing four-year commitment of more than $7 million for new infrastructure, is good news. This is in addition to the ongoing yearly funding of $1.9 million to maintain public transport service improvements. So what does this mean to services on the ground? This upgrade represents a 60 per cent increase in services. It means an extra 1,560 services per week in the region, including many new peak services to Brisbane CBD. Logan now has another 11 new low-floor, airconditioned buses in operation, providing a more comfortable journey for passengers. Another 185 bus stops have been added to the transport network. In other words, an additional 20 per cent of the Logan City Council local government area will be serviced by public transport. The new services came about through a consultation program offered during the development of the draft TransLink network plan. The consultation program included various meetings at bus stations and shopping centres, meetings with Logan city councillors and deputations to the council. Logan City Council was also represented on the public transport network plan working group, which had convened on a regular basis since 2003. Yet when the new bus services were about to start, what did Logan city councillors do? They went to the media asking for these changes to stop the week before they were about to start because they needed to be consulted. Then we heard the cries that they were getting hundreds and hundreds of calls because the network was all wrong and the new services would not work. I am the first to agree that, of course, with a change as big as this there would be problems. Of course the first few weeks would identify connections not working, changes in destinations that would affect some people and, of course, changes in bus service times that would also affect some people. But what was more important was that TransLink was there to listen to these people’s concerns, improve the changes and assist these people. With only four days to go before the implementation date, I was at the Logan Hyperdome with TransLink officers discussing the new timetable with commuters to ensure that the changes would go smoothly for them. It was then that we had a problem pointed out to us with regard to a connection to get people into suburban streets in Shailer Park in the evening. TransLink immediately took that request on board and began looking at the new timetable to try to solve this problem. I went straight to the Logan City Bus Service office and spoke to the Clark family. They immediately started looking at bus schedules and driver rosters to see if there would be any buses in their fleet not being used. That afternoon they had come up with a solution to this problem. I have had about 30 complaints in all since the changes. TransLink has met with me on several occasions and there have been changes to assist many of these residents. Some matters are still outstanding and TransLink and I will continue to work out a solution to these problems. The Logan city councillors scream that they have received hundreds and hundreds of complaints. The mayor, the member for Woodridge, Logan City Council staff and I met with the minister—who I am pleased to say is in the House—and TransLink officers to investigate these complaints. I did not see pages and pages of complaints, as the councillors have stated. What I did see was a concern from the mayor about a small number of problems that had been discovered since the implementation of the changes and new requests from residents at that meeting. I also witnessed the willingness of TransLink to work with the mayor to get the best result for Logan commuters. The outcomes of that meeting are now being progressed. Never has Logan seen such a change or such an enormous increase in bus services. As I said earlier, the Greyhound bus running up and down the highway was the only service we had before the Clarks came along. For over 25 years they had to grow and adapt from being a mum and dad operation that was established to get schoolkids to school to now having quite a fleet of buses with a large local
2576 Constitutional and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 23 Aug 2005 work force. What has not changed is that they are still a family-run operation and a business that supports Logan. I thank them for this service. There have been approximately 19,000 more passengers since the changes. There has been a 30 per cent increase in patronage on buses in Logan. The Logan City Bus Service moves around 200,000 people a month. That is more than the number of people who live in Logan City. This government will continue to keep monitoring and reviewing bus routes to ensure better transport outcomes for Logan. As the member for Springwood, I give this guarantee to constituents: I will continue to represent their views and ideas for public transport. I will make sure those views and ideas are fed to TransLink in order to continue to implement successful changes and improvements. CONSTITUTIONAL AND OTHER LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL First Reading Hon. PD BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Treasurer) (12.39 pm): I present a bill for an act to amend the Constitution of Queensland 2001, the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 and the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian Act 2000, and for other purposes. I present the explanatory notes, and I move— That the bill be now read a first time. Motion agreed to. Second Reading Hon. PD BEATTIE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (Premier and Treasurer) (12.40 pm): I move— That the bill be now read a second time. Today we are seeing the culmination of several years of detailed examination of issues of constitutional reform in Queensland, dating back to the Queensland Constitutional Review Commission which I established in 1999. I am pleased to introduce the Constitutional and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2005. The bill amends the Constitution of Queensland 2001 and the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 to give effect to the government’s response to the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee’s reports Nos 36, 41 and 42. My government tabled its response to these three reports on 27 April 2004. There were 11 recommendations that were accepted which required amendment of the Constitution of Queensland 2001 and a total of three recommendations requiring amendment of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001. I now turn to the bill. The bill is largely modelled on the government’s tabled response. Specifically, the bill clarifies constitutional conventions relating to the functions of the Executive Council, the Governor’s rights and powers, and the appointment and dismissal of the Premier and ministers. This includes following the Commonwealth model for the appointment of executive councillors. This provision will also be linked to the Commonwealth policy for use of the title of ‘The Honourable’. We have not followed the Commonwealth model before; we now will. The bill provides the option for members of the Legislative Assembly, ministers and judges to make an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the Crown. It requires the Legislative Assembly to meet soon after a general election, which is pretty obvious I would have thought but, nevertheless, needed. It clarifies the role of the parliamentary secretaries; expressly includes the retirement age of judges and formalises the process by which judges may be removed from office; extends the objects of the statutory committees of the Legislative Assembly to include extending democratic government and the transparency of public administration; extends the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee’s area of responsibility regarding legal reform to include considering whether Queensland law has sufficient regard to Aboriginal tradition and Torres Strait Islander custom; implements the government’s response to the Members’ Ethics and Parliamentary Privileges Committee report No. 64 regarding members transacting business with the state; and clarifies the definition of ‘state’ under the Constitution, as it relates to a department’s authority to engage in commercial activities. The bill removes section 9(3) of the Parliament of Queensland Act, which allows documents tabled, submitted or presented to the Assembly, a committee or an inquiry, which were brought into existence for another purpose, to be impeached or questioned in relation to that other purpose, if the Assembly or committee has authorised its disclosure. The provision was intended to address concerns that witnesses could potentially table documents in committee proceedings, and attract parliamentary privilege, which may later be relied upon in criminal court proceedings. This section may give rise to an unintended consequence that parliamentary privilege may not apply to documents under section 9(2)(d). The possibility of the exemption being used is low and does not justify the exception to fundamental principles of parliamentary privilege.
Page 1 and 2: PROOF ISSN 1322-0330 WEEKLY HANSARD
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents — Tuesday, 23 A
Page 5 and 6: 2536 Papers 23 Aug 2005 PAPERS PAPE
Page 7 and 8: 2538 Ministerial Statement 23 Aug 2
Page 19 and 20: 2550 Scrutiny of Legislation Commit
Page 21 and 22: 2552 Private Members’ Statements
Page 23 and 24: 2554 Questions Without Notice 23 Au
Page 33 and 34: 2564 Members’ Ethics and Parliame
Page 35 and 36: 2566 Matters of Public Interest 23
Page 43: 2574 Matters of Public Interest 23
Page 47 and 48: 2578 Transport Legislation Amendmen
Page 49 and 50: 2580 Transport Legislation Amendmen
Page 51 and 52: 2582 Housing Legislation Amendment
Page 53 and 54: 2584 Education (Queensland College
Page 55 and 56: 2586 Succession Amendment Bill 23 A
Page 57 and 58: 2588 Succession Amendment Bill 23 A
Page 59 and 60: 2590 Queensland Competition Authori
Page 69 and 70: 2600 Racing Venues Development Amen
Page 81 and 82: 2612 Plumbing and Drainage and Othe
Page 95 and 96:
2626 Plumbing and Drainage and Othe
Page 97 and 98:
2628 Plumbing and Drainage and Othe
Page 99 and 100:
2630 Child Safety Legislation Amend
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
2642 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 One pa
Page 113 and 114:
2644 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 years.
Page 115:
2646 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 Finall
show all

weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?