Page 3631 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 16 October 1990
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The fact of life is that when in government the Australian Labor Party, which is represented by those opposite, made no attempt to change the nature of Canberra's planning to improve the safe access or safety arrangements in respect of school children in our schools in the ACT. It made no changes whatsoever. It was prepared to accept the status quo even though it required - I say required, rather than allowed - hundreds, perhaps thousands, of school children to cross main roads in this city every day. It made no changes, and it made no changes because it did not believe for one moment that this was inadequate or unacceptable in the circumstances. It was prepared to accept this because it believed the arrangements were adequate. This Government is going to change - I believe marginally - that proportion of students who are crossing main roads in the ACT.
It is a fair assumption that no-one can be certain about what is going to happen when schools close, but it is reasonable to assume that more students will be crossing roads or using underpasses or overpasses or using buses or whatever than might have previously had to do so. This may well be the case, and I admit this freely; but to say that this changes fundamentally the nature of Canberra, to say that it poses an unacceptable risk to students or pupils in the ACT, is just simple hogwash. The ACT, in fact, has more bike paths, more underpasses, more overpasses and more safety features than any other State in Australia. To suggest that to modify these arrangements slightly jeopardises all of that and changes the planning nature of Canberra is simple rubbish; simple utter rubbish.
Members interjected.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, on the logic of the Opposition, the rate of collisions with children in other States, extrapolating from the figures that those opposite have provided, would be enormous. Of course, it is not, and the reason it is not is that parents are responsible throughout this country. They take it on themselves to explain to their children that they ought to travel to and from school safely, and I believe that most parents - not all parents, but most parents - succeed in that endeavour. They persuade their children, particularly young children, to use the safety measures that are provided for them, such as zebra crossings or traffic lights or whatever.
Citizens in other States in this country would, I think, Mr Speaker, laugh out loud if they heard us saying that for us to change the nature of the provision of these sorts of services in Canberra is unacceptable and a terrible derogation from the amenity of Canberra. They would say that the difference between what Canberra is and what other cities are is so vast that the comparison really does not bear making.
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