Page 4707 - Week 15 - Thursday, 16 December 1993
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Mr Humphries has a right to his beliefs - and I will defend that right to the end - but I cannot agree with him on this. It is not a party matter. I just cannot agree with him, because I feel that what he proposes is not the way to go. I thank the members of the committee and our chairman, Mr Humphries. I also thank Ms Szuty - - -
Mr Lamont: And previous members of the committee.
MRS GRASSBY: And the previous members of the committee, who put in a lot of time. Mr Lamont did a very good job on this. May I say thank you to him. I also say thank you to Ron Owens, who did a very good job putting the report together.
MS SZUTY (11.54): I support report No. 3 of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs on the Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1992, and I would like to address each of the committee's recommendations in turn. The first recommendation was that the Legislative Assembly not proceed with the Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1992. I totally support this recommendation. Although it is usual that committee members keep an open mind about legislation which is referred to Assembly committees, the in-principle debate on this particular Bill certainly seemed to indicate that Assembly members would not support it in principle. I recall particularly that the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly - on behalf of the Government - my colleague Mr Moore and I all suggested that the issue was one which needed to be addressed, but that the means by which Mr Humphries had in mind to address it was not appropriate. In fact, in my motion to refer the Bill to the Legal Affairs Committee, the terms of reference specifically referred to "notwithstanding the provisions of standing order 174". Standing order 174 states:
Immediately after a bill has been agreed to in principle a Member may move that the bill be referred to a select or standing committee.
It was my belief, Madam Speaker, that Mr Humphries's Bill would not have been agreed to in principle. However, I felt that, as Mr Humphries had raised a legitimate issue of public concern, the Assembly could indeed adopt a proactive approach and, through the work of an Assembly committee, seek to resolve the difficulties which we heard about during the public hearing and submission process. Notwithstanding these comments, Madam Speaker, I was happy to hear the views of the people who made representations to the committee about the provisions of the Bill. I found that my views on the matter were confirmed by way of that process.
Recommendation 2 of the committee recommends:
The Youth Affairs Section of the Chief Minister's Department, in conjunction with the Council on the Ageing (ACT), the Cyclists' Rights Action Group and the Youth Affairs Network of the ACT, design and coordinate a public education campaign on the safe use of skateboards, roller blades and bicycles.
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