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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 286 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

Planning activities and, in particular, the shopping centre refurbishment program, provide an important context for installation of quality outdoor lighting and can provide clear demonstration effects. The Civic lighting and signage strategy is such an example.

My information and my visits indicate to me that the lighting around Civic is not the best. Certainly, the lighting around the car park area in the Tuggeranong Town Centre, at both ends, up near where the Southern Cross Club has now been built - and, I might also inform the Assembly, where the youth centre is - is substandard. The car park at the corner of Cowlishaw Street and Reed Street, which is opposite McDonald's and the Salvation Army facility, has been the subject of complaint to me by businesses, by individuals and informally by members of the police force.

There have been a number of incidents in that car park. I have been bellyaching about these for some time, to no avail. For example, we have had people who have robbed stores within the Hyperdome head that way. The police have gone into some of the establishments in that area and have said, "Do not go out there, because we cannot find the guy". That is a specific instance that comes to mind. We can provide dates and bits and pieces, if anybody is interested. We also know - and I have had complaints made to me - that there have been cars knocked off from that particular car park. Curiously, one car actually lost all four wheels. It was put up on bricks at about 9 o'clock at night. You would think, Mr Speaker - unless this is a band of absolutely incredible professionals - that to knock off four wheels in a public car park where there are people about is no mean feat. But it can be aided by substandard lighting.

We have been asking for that to be addressed for some time. Again, the response has been: "This is a low priority". I cannot find out - I have asked the Minister to tell me, and he has not done so yet - what constitutes a high priority, a medium priority and a low priority. He has not told me. I was hoping to see some of this sort of information come out of the report and also the Government's response, and it has not. So, I am very critical of that. I cannot find out what are the criteria for high, medium and low priority, but I would have thought that examples of people being injured and people being supremely frightened - as opposed to just walking down your street where the lights are a bit dim - would have constituted a high priority; but it would appear not to be so.

Mr Speaker, recommendation 10 was that the Government establish an advisory body to prepare an outdoor lighting code. It quotes the lighting code for Tucson, Arizona. If we do not have a lighting code, how on earth can we determine what is a high, medium and low priority for it? We have got nothing to measure it against. The Government says in its response that it is not convinced that the problem is significant enough to justify a lighting code of the type recommended by the committee at this stage. That is fairly consistent with the response that the Government gave to the mother of that kid who was assaulted in Gilmore. It is a low priority. It is not convinced that the problem is significant enough to justify a lighting code of the type recommended. Well, I am blessed if I know what would be.

Mr Speaker, essentially, the Government has just paid lip-service to this report. It does not seriously want to do anything. It recognises that it has got to do something about the extent to which, in a sense, we have got light pollution over the ACT. I recognise that,

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