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Teaching Services Act 1972. . . Page.. 645 ..

Over the last 25 years, the safety of Australian roads has been vastly improved. Fatalities have fallen from 3,800 in 1970 to 1,941 in 1994, despite the fact that the amount of road travel has almost doubled. Despite these improvements, road trauma remains an important national issue. As well as the 1,941 deaths, road crashes caused about 38,000 serious injuries last year. Lost productivity due to road crashes cost the national economy $6.1 billion annually. Each year in the ACT 10,000 road accidents are reported to the police and, of these, 200 result in serious injury or death. There were 17 fatalities on ACT roads last year. Road accidents cost the ACT community $150m each year.

Mr Speaker, the purpose of the National Road Trauma Advisory Council is to provide strategic advice to governments on the means by which road safety and health efforts within Australia can be targeted to areas where maximum reductions can be made in road fatalities and serious injuries. One of the key tasks for the council is to monitor and report on progress with the national road safety strategy. An implementation program for the strategy - the national road safety action plan - was released by all governments in June 1994. As part of this monitoring process, the council will host a national road safety review conference in Canberra, I am pleased to say, on 15 June 1995. The recently released ACT road safety strategy acknowledges the importance of national initiatives and commits the ACT to implementing the national strategy and action plan. In particular, ACT efforts are being focused on providing an integrated approach to road safety, improving the coordination of road safety activities carried out by ACT government agencies and actively encouraging and supporting community involvement in road safety issues.

Mr Speaker, to summarise, the ACT is closely involved with the work of the National Road Trauma Advisory Committee and is actively participating in related national road safety initiatives. It gives me great pleasure to formally table the annual report of the council in the Assembly.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

PAPERS

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the following paper:

Audit Act - Canberra Institute of Technology - Report, freedom of information and financial statements, including the Auditor-General’s report for 1993, together with a report on the Teaching Services Act 1972.

Mr Speaker, pursuant to standing order 83A, I also present three petitions which do not conform with standing orders. The first, lodged by Mr De Domenico concerning traffic arrangements in the vicinity of Lyneham Preschool, is from 40 residents; the second, also lodged by Mr De Domenico concerning a skateboard park in the Tuggeranong Town Centre, is from 253 residents; and the third, lodged by Mr Moore concerning Tillyard Drive traffic problems near the Alkira Child Care Centre, is from 91 residents.

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