Page: 10225
Mr DARYL MAGUIRE (Wagga Wagga) [11.06 a.m.]: I express to the Minister for Transport Services my deep concern about the impact proposed closures to CountryLink ticketing services will have on regional communities, particularly my railway station, which provides CountryLink travel services. If CountryLink services are centralised elsewhere, we will lose the hub that has become, after negotiations with our local council, a major interchange. Not only does the CountryLink office sell rail tickets and travel products and deal with telephone bookings and inquiries, it also sells tickets for Great Southern Railways, the Indian Pacific, the Ghan and other products. It is an agent for local airlines, Virgin, Qantas and Rex Airlines, and for road coaches McCafferty's, Greyhound, Murrays, Fearnes, and Premier Coaches. It also retails accommodation for motels Australiawide. The ticketing office also contributes to our community by providing work experience to local youth. It also provides tourist information.
The staff at our CountryLink office are well regarded. They live in our community; they are part of our community. While the centre is operating, the staff provide customer services. They move booked luggage, offer cloaking services, recover lost property, and deal with customer complaints and inquiries. They make public announcements about train movements, et cetera, and they control the station with departures, hand signalling, et cetera. Importantly, they assist elderly people. As honourable members know, elderly people and the disabled use public transport services, more so in the country. Today I represent the elderly and the disadvantaged in the Wagga Wagga community and surrounding areas. Those people depend on this service. If the staff are no longer there, who will help them?
Old people travelling by bus to the rail station and then trying to board the local train have difficulty lugging big cases and luggage. Trains and buses often arrive late at night. The incidence of assaults, unsavoury behaviour, and vandalism at the local railway station has been reduced because the staff deal with such matters promptly, and they work closely with the police. That provides an environment in which the travelling public can at least wait for connecting trains or buses in safety. Nowhere else in our city of 58,000 people is such an environment provided. As a result of problems with bus and train services, the community agreed that the local CountryLink ticketing centre would become the transport hub for our region.
In the assessment, CountryLink ticketing centres are being judged, quite unfairly, on a revenue basis. I say "unfairly" because CountryLink provides a ticketing service to the disadvantaged and the aged travellers as a community service obligation. That is not being taken into consideration in the assessment process. That is unjust; it is not right. In relation to revenue, there are warrants for concessions, special concessions and student travel passes. All those matters must be considered when the Minister is deciding the future of CountryLink rail services. A community service obligation is a tool provided for rural and regional areas. It is put in place to deliver services, even those of a basic nature, to the most disadvantaged who rely on CountryLink train services and bus services. I urge the Minister to carefully consider the ramifications of this decision for country people. It will add to the woes of those in smaller communities who use train services to visit loved ones in hospital or to attend medical appointments. If the Minister is intent on getting rid of CountryLink ticketing services, I urge him to locate the service in Wagga Wagga, where we can accommodate those needs.