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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 3919 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the issue that I particularly want to raise now relates to the control of parking on weekends. The Minister and I had a bit of a side debate in question time about whether or not there was parking control on the weekends. I believe that parking control is totally inadequate on weekends. I want to read from a letter from the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Tony De Domenico, addressed to me and dated 30 September 1996. This was in relation to a constituent inquiry about parking that I had raised. Mr De Domenico said in that letter:

Resources are not available for patrols on Saturday afternoons and Sundays.

That refers to parking patrols, and that is the quote from the Minister.
He went on:

However, the Australian Federal Police are also able to issue infringement notices, and can be contacted for assistance on telephone 256 7777 if illegal parking becomes a danger or a serious inconvenience.

As my constituent found when she contacted the police, they are, of course, not able to give a high priority to an illegally parked vehicle on the weekend when they are very strapped for staff. In fact, my constituent wrote back to Mr De Domenico and said:

I ... have noted your advice about contacting the Australian Federal Police Traffic Branch. I have contacted the police in the past and have been told they have not the manpower to attend to parking infringements. I spoke to the police recently and they advised the situation has not changed.

What we have from the Minister's letter to me and from my constituent's letter is a quite serious situation in which, as I understand the Minister's letter, parking officers do not patrol on Saturday afternoons or Sundays because they do not have the resources to do so. The police, of course, must prioritise their work and cannot possibly give the appropriate priority or staffing resources to parking offences that they would to far more serious issues. I think Mr De Domenico, who was fairly dismissive of Ms Horodny's question, ought to have a very close look at exactly what happens on the weekend in relation to illegal parking and perhaps take rather more seriously the issues which both my constituent and Ms Horodny have raised on that matter.

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