00:00It's a good old-fashioned political bust-up.
00:0550 cent fares will be a 50 cent fail.
00:08When Brisbane residents are stranded at busway stations...
00:11The cheap public transport is one of the State Government's
00:14flagship cost-of-living measures,
00:17but there are concerns the network won't handle the demand.
00:20This will be one of the greatest public policy failings
00:23in Queensland's history.
00:25The City Council says Brisbane has 82,000 fewer bus services
00:30than a decade ago due to chronic underfunding
00:33by the Queensland Government.
00:35This isn't the first time I've been engaged with a local government
00:38that wants more money, and that's what's happening here.
00:40What we really need is a focus on making sure that buses
00:43are frequent and reliable
00:46and have the capacity to meet the growing region.
00:49The Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council
00:52have been negotiating behind closed doors for six weeks.
00:56Council wants a half a billion dollar investment
00:59in the bus network over five years,
01:02but the state has offered just 10 per cent of that.
01:05And we didn't want to go public with this,
01:07but on Friday they rejected our deal,
01:10and in fact they offered us $50 million in hush money
01:13for us to go away ahead of their election, a one-off payment.
01:16I wouldn't go reading too much into the argy-bargy
01:19of what is a negotiation.
01:21The rollout of the congestion-busting electric Metro fleet
01:25is also at risk, according to the Transport Chair.
01:28Brisbane Metro will be ready to start services by the end of this year,
01:32but not unless we get a new deal.
01:34The Metro is Brisbane City Council's flagship bus program,
01:38and if they haven't budgeted sufficiently for it to operate,
01:42then we will work with them to make sure that it can launch successfully.
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