Page 3140 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: The answer is neither. Mr Moore neglects to mention, when he asks that question, the fact that the Treasury figures that were produced in July as part of the exercise to respond to Dr Perkins' analysis were hypothetical figures. They were figures based on an assumption that a certain number of schools would close in the Territory without specifying which schools they would be. And in that process, for want of being able to know whether or not particular requirements would have to be met, it was decided to put in an estimate of $300,000 per school for new traffic arrangements.
In fact, with the number of schools the Government has decided to close and with the location of those schools, the requirement for $300,000 per school is seen to be a vast overestimate and not required. With respect, if one looks at other schools in similar circumstances elsewhere in the Territory one will see that $300,000 per school is simply not warranted. As I think the P and C has pointed out, about $120,000 or $150,000 is required to put in a set of traffic lights, but many of the schools we are talking about here will not require traffic lights, for a range of reasons.
Mr Moore: So you put kids at risk with shonky systems; that is the answer to the first part of the question.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, there is nothing shonky about this. It is an entirely appropriate response to the circumstances. We are looking at the movement of children across major roads where that occurs, estimating what, on NCDC principles or planning principles, if you like, would be required to cope with those kinds of movements - and the estimate is for a much smaller number than was hypothetically put forward in the budget Treasury figures in July. I should make the point very clearly that the figures that were produced by me yesterday on this score have been assessed and checked by the Treasury. The Treasury is happy with the amount allocated for these purposes and I think you will find it will back up the more accurate estimate made in these figures as opposed to the hypothetical exercise in July.
MR MOORE: I ask a supplementary question. I refer you to page 17 and your talk about the safety of children and so forth. Your own ex-Executive Deputy for education was pictured on the front page of the Canberra Times dancing across - perhaps I should say skipping across - Springvale Drive in Weetangera, and I note that, in spite of what I observe myself as a very serious and difficult crossing for children, this intersection has not been included in your estimates here. So, what are you proposing for somewhere like that - just to leave it, to put in a set of traffic lights or to burrow a tunnel underneath? All these possibilities for traffic management to protect children are clearly much more expensive than $200,000, and even if one set of lights, as you say, from P and C estimates - and they have got it from the old NCDC - is $125,000 - - -
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