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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4750 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

Motor Traffic (Amendment) Bill (No. 4) is a more comprehensive and appropriate approach to dealing with this issue. Ms Horodny also proposed a list of amendments to the Bill as it currently stands. I will leave my comments on those to the detail stage; but I will say that, like the Opposition, the Government will not be supporting Ms Horodny's amendments. There are minor changes, and I will talk about them in the detail stage.

I was gratified to hear what Mr Whitecross in particular said. He talked about the safety issues. He talked about the alternative parking issue, and we have come to an agreement there. He used words like "reasonable compromise" and "a reasonable start". Whilst this has taken a long time, it was my view that it ought to be done away from an election campaign. We all saw what happened when certain promises were made by both sides during the course of an election campaign, and I do not think that is a fair time for us to consider such an important issue. So, in a way, I am glad that it has taken such a long time. There will be a lot of people who will say, "De Domenico has been sitting on his hands and has been doing nothing. It was about time he did it, and it was done only because he was brought to it kicking and screaming". I will let the wordsmiths spin the words the way they want to. I am delighted with the way the process has taken place. Mr Whitecross also said that using maturity and goodwill was the way to solve these sorts of issues. I agree with that, and one hopes that maturity and goodwill will apply on both sides, from both the residents and the truck drivers.

Mr Whitecross also suggested that there were rights and responsibilities on both sides; residents have rights, as they have responsibilities, and so do truck drivers. On the other hand, Ms Horodny, without being too colourful, used words such as "intimidating", "insensitive", "little change from the status quo", "reprisals" and "fear". I am aware that sometimes some people who drive trucks do not fit the stereotype of being pleasant people. However, stereotypes are not what they seem. Once again, this is a compromise. In other words, not everybody is going to be 100 per cent happy. The Government realises that. But decisions need to be made, and we hope, with the support of this Assembly, that the decision this Government has made is the right one.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services) (6.07): Mr Speaker, I move:

Page 2, line 4, subclause (3), omit "6", substitute "12".

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