Mike Baird | Member for Manly - Manly JetCat Services

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Manly JetCat Services

Thursday, 12 March 2009

Mr MIKE BAIRD (Manly) [2.20 p.m.]: I refer to a victory in the Manly community that is a testament to people power and what it can achieve�often well above and beyond politics. The Government's mini-budget scrapped a critical public transport service, that is, the Manly JetCat service. I will not dwell on how that decision was made but when it was made the people of the Manly community were left in the lurch. Rightly, they said it is not time just to be angry but it is time to do something; they had had enough and they would not take any more. After the decision by the Premier and the Minister for Transport to scrap the service I asked the people at the wharf to tell the transport Minister and the Premier what they thought of the decision and to ask for a replacement service or something other than the abandonment of the service. When the service was cancelled no additional buses or ferries were provided.

I pay tribute to a group called Fix our Ferries, which pressured the Government to back down. The group includes Lew Jenkins, chairman; Chris Robertson, Zack Bell, Stuart Freizer, Hugh Burns, David Murphy and David Taylor, all of whom have different expertise�naval architecture, engineering, and business. They were passionate commuters who used the service and worked tirelessly to achieve a result for Manly to bring back a service. Today we have a service, which is delivering on-time running, no cancellations, friendly staff and even a smart card ticketing system. The response from customers has been overwhelming and patronage has increased by more than 50 per cent since the service started just over four weeks ago. This is a good example of what can be achieved if people take a stand. When the campaign started on 23 October the Premier said in Parliament in relation to the mini-budget:

the JetCat provides an unreliable service duplicated by a 30-minute ferry service and numerous bus services from the Northern Beaches we must now consider the viability of the existing service.

The Premier was not seeking to make the JetCat service more reliable, but his comment that the Northern Beaches had ferry and bus services, and did not need the JetCat made it clear that he was not going to provide anything more. The Manly community was going to be left with nothing. Based on the Walker inquiry the Parramatta service should have gone well before the JetCat service. My strong sense is that politics was played. It was after pressure on the Premier and the Minister for Transport through emails and phone calls from the community who wanted a replacement service, after the Fix our Ferries group made personal and written representations, and after 12 ferry companies around the world were asked if they could provide this service at zero cost to government and one was found, that the Government agreed to open it up for tender.

The JetCat service finished on 31 December and the response to its reopening was overwhelming. About five tenders were submitted. Meanwhile, with no JetCat service the ferries were crowded and safety became an issue. This was not a good example of how the State Government should operate and how it puts public transport first. We showed that people power could work. The Government chose the tenderer, Bass and Flinders. I congratulate that Australian family-owned company on finding vessels, a smart card system, staff and, most importantly, a connection to the Manly community that will not be forgotten. In its four weeks of operation patronage has increased, and people are being turned away. The company is looking at pricing, which is of concern to the community. Its pricing is actually cheaper than it was for the JetCat service, and it is at no cost to government. The service has 100 per cent on-time running without one cancellation. It is a good public transport example. We saw the true style of the Maritime Union in relation to this service. We respect its right to protest but it should not direct its protest to commuters and the community who are just trying to get to and from work. The union should protest to the Government. In conclusion, we thank every member of the community who fought for this service: they have been vindicated. I pay tribute to them. Public transport should transcend politics. This is a great example of how public transport can be improved.

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