Mr MIKE BAIRD (Manly) [11.35 a.m.]: The Premier and the Minister for Transport argue that the Transport Administration Amendment (Rail and Ferry Transport Authorities) Bill 2008 is necessary to give the Government sufficient control over RailCorp and Sydney Ferries to produce results. In this instance we agree with the Government - it does not have public transport services under control, nor does it produce the results commuters want. But we can all see through the facade of this bill. It is an attempt to shift the blame across to a group of public servants who have been managing these facilities, in accordance with ministerial direction, for the past 13 or 14 years. That is the nub of this bill. Whatever way you cut it, it is time this Labor Government was accountable. Until it starts taking ownership for its actions, until it stops shifting blame on to other people, the State will not move forward.

Services are in disarray because Ministers are not accountable and systems are not in place to deliver value for New South Wales taxpayers. Bret Walker was appointed as an independent expert to oversee Sydney Ferries and put together a framework that would deliver better ferry services for the people of New South Wales, a key plank of this bill and a key part of the public transport network. It will be 12 months tomorrow since the Walker report was provided to us, and the Government has just decided that it will look at Sydney Ferries for another 12 months and then make a decision. Members on this side of the House agree with the bulk of his recommendations. Notwithstanding the delay in adopting his recommendations, he was scathing about the option of returning the ferries to direct government control as a statutory authority without an independent board. The member for Willoughby, the outstanding shadow transport Minister, has said the same thing. It is a fundamental point. The Australian of 22 October reported Mr Walker as saying:

Its key weakness as a model is that it supplies no more incentive for better governmental value for money than the present model, and may even reduce the present statutory pressure for efficiency.

So, it is not about the models; it is about Ministers taking responsibility for their actions and holding to account departments and services they are responsible for delivering—nothing more, nothing less. Since 2004 Sydney Ferries and the Ministry of Transport have been trying to negotiate a funding agreement and ongoing benchmarks. Some benchmarks are published by Sydney Ferries, but the critical funding agreements with the definitive performance benchmarks still are not. It is no wonder the service is failing. It is the Government's responsibility to ensure services are delivered yet it has allowed Sydney Ferries to continue operating in exactly the same way without this critical agreement in place, when what is needed are some finalised performance benchmarks that are not just token—which pretty much the current ones are.

During the estimates hearing earlier this month it was unbelievable to hear the Minister for Commerce and her director general did not know what measures were in place to ensure the Government's new call centre was producing results. They could not name any metrics, they could not name the performance benchmarks or tracking systems to know whether this call centre was delivering for the people of New South Wales. It is that lack of understanding of the process, that lack of accountability and that failure to have performance measures in place that show the State is failing. It is particularly relevant to our public transport system and day in, day out commuters all over Sydney feel very let down by the Government. A couple of months ago a leading architect compared Sydney's public transport infrastructure with major cities, such as New York, Paris and Barcelona. He said:

When you compare to other cities, Sydney has just built nothing. This study shows that the State Government has been asleep at the wheel.

While the population has increased—it has risen by 800,000 people since this Labor Government was elected in 1995—it has provided no improvement in transport infrastructure; just a stream of empty promises. It has failed to manage the existing services. On numerous occasions I have spoken about the management performance of Sydney Ferries. The Minister oversees Sydney Ferries, yet over a five-year period its revenue rose 14 per cent while, at the same time, it expenses increased 46 per cent. According to the annual report, in 2005-06 the labour costs of Sydney Ferries were $1.2 million overbudget, so expenses are rising at almost three times that of revenue. That is not sustainable and money cannot be strategically applied for future vessels or for future improvement of public transport generally.

Both the Minister for Transport and the Premier seemed determined to stop the JetCat service. The Premier said that "the JetCats spend almost as much time off the water as they spend on the water", seeking to shift the blame on to someone else. The Government runs the ferry services and is responsible for maintaining them. The Government must take ownership of the problem yet the Premier uses that as a reason for removing them from service. The maintenance budget has also been slashed by 27 per cent over the past two years. It does not take Einstein to work out that if maintenance is reduced, reliability will plummet.

The Palm Beach ferry service, which is operated by Riverside Marine, has a record of 99 per cent reliability. It is one of the country's largest maritime companies. The company has said it can operate a fast ferry service to Manly that is more environmentally friendly, uses 30 per cent less fuel, is cheaper, will provide more capacity and will be at no cost to taxpayers. If the Premier comes down to Manly wharf at 7.20 a.m. on a weekday he will see from the length of the JetCat queues the demand for that service. The onus is on the Minister for Transport and the Premier to consider Riverside Marine's proposition. It is not about changing structures or passing the buck. It is accepting that the service is unreliable but an alternative proposition has been put to provide a service that Manly commuters would be very proud of.

The Opposition opposes the bill. It is not necessary to force the Government to acknowledge its responsibility for public transport in New South Wales. It has been running ferries, buses and trains for 13 years and has no-one else to blame but itself for the appalling state of these services. We urge the Government to adopt the Coalition's integrated transport plan, which was released in February by the outstanding shadow Minister for Transport, Gladys Berejiklian. We want to stop the Government's 10 separate transport agencies operating in isolation. Today we again debate rail and ferries—not buses. There is no integration; just bits and pieces. Transport should be a holistic approach. The Government should have integrated ticketing so commuters do not have to line up at three different booths on their journeys home; a system that coordinates both timetable and services and that provides seamless transport delivery in this State, something all commuters have been seeking. Other cities around the world, such as London, Vancouver, Zurich and even Perth, have a single transport authority and, as a result, have increased patronage. For the sake of commuters and every family in this State, it is time that this Government accepted its responsibility to deliver effective services and held its Ministers to account.