Hi Steve,

I support this move. However, the number one issue for me and my wife and a lot of commuters who live on the Sunshine Coast and work in Brisbane is public transport costs. The government have increased the cost of a ticket 30% in the past 14 months, with another 15% next Janaury. The new Sunshine Coast timetable added 20 minutes to a long journey. I wrote to the Minister for Transport, what a waste of time that was.

Last night there were delays up to one hour due to a points failure at Burpengary. I called Translink, they could not tell me what time I could pick my wife up from Landsborough station. They told me to ring QR passenger services - I did and the phone rang for five minutes before I hung up. The train driver could not tell the passensgers if the temporary Petrie buses would go to every station north. My wife said most commuters were saying "what date is the election, I am sick of Labour". I am now ringing the minister's office today to put in a complaint. I don't normally do this, but when I have to pay increased fares for less service (and no refund for long delays) I am compelled to act.

Cambell Newman has said he will subsidise public transport costs to make it a.ffordable and stop the declining patronage. I am voting on this issue. Pass it on to Campbell - I and my wife are voting for you to have this issue sorted. Labour wasted up to $600 million on the Traveston Dam, and $200 million on Queensland Health. I am subsidising public transport cost becuase of Labour's financial faliures. (BTW - Labour's failure on Gladstone Harbour is a disgrace too, to the environment, to the marine life and the local businesses). I was a labour voter, but they have lost the plot both State and Federal.

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A few of the red tape items I was faced with when starting up a small tourism business:

(1) operator accreditation - ok, good reasons, but had to do a transport management course, and some of my fellow students had to send in assignments about attracting Korea and Japanese markets and running a fleet of buses etc. when all they were doing was to drive the local football team somewhere a couple of times a year. And apparently since I have OA in Qld it's ok for me to drive interstate with tourists (which I regularly do) but if I were to fly interstate, hire a vehicle and drive tourists I would need the costly and very time-consuming process (the Qld one had a month's worth of written exercises) of doing the courses and applying for accreditation in each state or territory I so visit. I have prospective customers wanting me to run my tours elsewhere but currently (although I'd have the knowledge and ability) I can't do so

(2) driver authorization - yes, value in this, but when I wanted to employ an ex-NZ guide we were told he needed to have not only had a drivers' licence for 3 years (fair enough) but 2 of those years had to be Australian. He'd been driving for 25 years in NZ, which I don't think could be so very different from Australia, and he'd already had an Australian licence for 6 months

(3) First Aid - ok, agree it's needed

(4) Food premises - I've completed a food safety course, and I wanted to cook a damper by a campfire under the stars for our tourists but was told I'd have to go the the expense of putting in a new kitchen and being accredited as a food premise, so I could cook a damper about 250m away from my kitchen on our home property, and also that I'd need to apply for a permit if I was to do this more than 10 times a year (it was to be a very small fire - not a bonfire - and in an area where my neighbours burn many hectares each year)

(5) We inform our tourists about the uniqueness of Australia's wildlife and how it came to be that way (split-up of Gondwana, isolated drifting towards Asia etc.) and were going to develop interactive computer games and educational video games around this, but need to pay several hundred dollars to register each (somewhere in Sydney I think) before allowing guests to use them

(6) I wanted to be able to play some Australian folk songs on the CD player in the tour vehicle, but was informed I would not only need to pay royalties on each song (which I expected), but also royalties on the particular production of each song (i.e. for instance a royalty for Waltzing Matilda plus a royalty for Lionel Long's rendition of the same, each tie it's played), plus a yearly music broadcast licence. I gave up on the idea of singing around a campfire also (although less licensing needed for that)

(7) commercial activity permits to take guests into national parks - I have no objections to paying for this, and am currently paying in Qld and NSW, but if I were to expand into other states the annual fees would really mount up

(8) Insurance. We are co-insured with national parks in both states (the increase in premiums with the recent proviso that we be covered for $20m will be difficult for us, with tourism so slow at the moment) and I wanted to arrange something similar to be able to take tourists onto private farms that retain natural habitats, paying the landowners for the privilege. Apparently I can do so if I don't pay anything, but as soon as I try to reward the landowner he/she becomes involved in the tourism business and needs to take out additional and expensive public liability insurance. This is one item on the agenda for discussion at the national wildlife tourism workshop to be held at the Gold Coast next month

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