XN000022-1995-07-27 — Page 46

38.

Public Bus Services (Amendment) Bill 1995: second reading

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport, Mr Haider Barma, in the resumption of second reading debate of the Public Bus Services (Amendment) Bill in the Legislative Council today (Thursday):

Mr President.

May I begin by expressing the Administration's gratitude to the Hon Zachary Wong Wai-yin, Chairman of the Bills Committee, and also to all other Honourable Members who have served on this Committee, for their advice on and support of the Public Bus Services (Amendment) Bill.

Introduction

Franchised bus services are the backbone of our public transport network system. This is illustrated by the fact that three and a half million passenger trips are made on franchised buses every day. It is therefore imperative that bus services need to be maintained at all times. No one will dispute this.

The Bill before Honourable Members today enshrines a concerted effort, first and foremost, to protect the interests of the travelling public whilst, equally important, seeks to ensure that any bus company, whose property may need to be leased or purchased, is fairly and fully compensated.

At this point, I should say that I cannot accept the Honourable Miriam Lau's and the Honourable Lee Wing-tat's contention that this Bill has been designed to strengthen the Government's hand in our franchise negotiations with the CMB. Let me reiterate that our basic aim is to protect the public interest. We are not here this evening to debate CMB or any other bus company's performance, and I do not therefore propose to argue this aspect. But let me say that franchise negotiations can often be difficult and time-consuming. In response to the Honourable Lee Wing-tat's philosophy on how to conduct negotiations, I can assure the Honourable Member that the Administrations accept the needs to commence negotiations early and in respect to the Honourable Members' comments, I shall be moving an amendment later on on this particular point.