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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (20 April) . . Page.. 963 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

reason unknown to me. I commend a member of the Minister's staff, Chris Beinke, for his attention to it and his efforts. I just wish that the officers with the department would have the same devotion to an outcome as Chris has.

Mr Speaker, on that spot where all of this rubbish has been dumped there are two things which concern me greatly. The first is the presence of barbed wire hidden by long grass. There are children in the area sub five years old. Anybody playing chasings around that area could run straight into rusty barbed wire. That was the reason for requiring its removal in the first place, and they have not done it.

The second thing I would like to mention - I hope the Minister's officers upstairs are listening to this one - is that it has been discovered that there are sensitive grasses in the middle of the dumping. That only came to light at the end of last week - on Friday, in fact. So the eventual removal of this dangerous waste that is sitting at the end of Templestowe Avenue will need to be done in an environmentally sensitive way. I would urge those officers involved in supervising the eventual removal of that stuff to be sensitive about those grasses.

I would like to congratulate the Government, and particularly the Minister for Education, for the presence of the Lanyon Neighbourhood and Youth Centre. This is an excellent exercise. The Government has listened to what the community says and has made provision for that centre. The community is looking forward to working with the Government on it. The moment the program has been passed by this Assembly, the bureaucratic machinery will swing into place, and the community and the department will end up providing that most needed facility. I congratulate the Government for that.

Mr Speaker, this report also talks about what actions ought to take place to fix the traffic problems at St Edmund's and St Clare's at McMillan Street. I am afraid I agree with the committee in its disagreement with the Government that the solution can be found from within the recurrent budget. It is crystal clear that that street, McMillan Street, is too narrow for the number of buses and the number of children accessing those buses. Something more substantial needs to be provided than red kerbs and signage. If it requires the closure of that street, then I would agree that it can come out of the recurrent budget because that is dead easy; but if it requires the installation of layovers, either in McMillan Street, Captain Cook Crescent or wherever else, it will require a substantial injection of funds.

I had comments as recently as Sunday from quite a number of parents who go to St Clare's that they believe the Minister is just not listening to them. I have to say to you, Mr Speaker, that I think they are right. The dangerous issue at McMillan Street was raised by me, at least, during the election campaign, which, as all members would know, was 18 months or more ago. How long do we have to wait before the most serious drop-off spot for schoolchildren's buses in the country, according to Mr Thurston - - -

Mr Smyth: No, the biggest.

MR HARGREAVES: The biggest. I would suggest to you that, if it is the biggest - not the biggest retailer of electrical goods but the biggest drop-off zone for kids - then it is also the most dangerous.

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