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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4491 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

The Labor Party would like to see this matter adjourned until we have seen some of the outcomes of the trials, until the Government has provided us with more information on what are the implications in detail for the ACT. We will be pressing for an adjournment, to ensure that when members of the Assembly come to a vote on this matter they are properly informed. Ms Tucker, no doubt, wants to bring it to a vote today because she wants to be able to say that the Greens are the one true voice for road safety and the Labor Party does not care about little kiddies getting run over in suburban streets. Of course, it is not as simple as that. It never is. The fact of the matter is that the Labor Party takes road safety very seriously, but we also take process seriously.

Mr Corbell: Informed decision-making.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes, informed decision-making, as Mr Corbell says. Whenever a matter comes before this Assembly on which the crossbenchers feel that more time is required, they are not shy about saying so. On this issue, we believe it is too important to be rushed to a decision when we do not have that information from Mr Kaine, when we do not have the information from the other national trials. We need a much better case, and much more information before us, to make a decision than the simple argument put by the Greens that cars which go at slower speeds stop sooner. While that is true, that is not a sufficient reason for changing the speed limit; it is not a sufficient argument. We want to see more.

The Labor Opposition believes that this matter should be adjourned. It should be brought back on when further information is provided, perhaps in the next Assembly. It is an issue that we will have to grapple with. I would prefer to see us grapple with it as part of the national road rules, rather than in isolation from that wider debate about road safety measures which is currently going on.

Motion (by Mr Corbell) put:

That the debate be adjourned.

The Assembly voted -

AYES, 5	 	NOES, 11

Mr Corbell	Mrs Carnell
Ms McRae	Mr Cornwell
Ms Reilly	Mr Hird
Mr Whitecross	Ms Horodny
Mr Wood		Mr Humphries
		Mr Kaine
		Mrs Littlewood
		Mr Moore
		Mr Osborne
		Mr Stefaniak
		Ms Tucker

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