REGIONAL AIRFARES —
STUDENTS AND PENSIONERS
651. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Transport:
I have a supplementary question.
Does the gap that many will be forced to pay not highlight the fact that the
cost of airfares in Western Australia has not gone down, as suggested, but has
in fact increased due to people not being able to get a seat when needed?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
As I said, I will respond to the
direct question by the end of today. However, in relation to airfares, members
opposite would have to give this government credit for doing far more on this
issue than the previous government ever did. Let us go through it. The
parliamentary committee held an inquiry, and we supported that work, and we are
working on the response to that. In the meantime, the Minister for Tourism,
together with the Department of Transport, have been negotiating for a range of
different airfares and airfare structures throughout regional Western Australia,
which has seen—the figures came out, I think, in the last 10 days—an
enormous increase in intrastate travel in WA at key destinations. We accept
that there is always more to be done, and we want to make sure that people can
travel from regional Western Australia to Perth in a convenient and
cost-effective manner, and that is what we continue to work on. I have always
acknowledged that transport costs are an issue for people living in regional
WA, but this government takes it seriously and we continue to work with the
airlines and through the government's regulatory framework to see what
we can do to put downward pressure on prices.