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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2598 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

to the success of speed cameras is the associated publicity, and the publicity needs to be in advance of the introduction of the cameras. That is why I will be moving to amend the Bill to provide for a two-month amnesty period.

During this two-month period any motorist that is caught for speeding via a speed camera will receive a caution. This caution will outline the demerit points which will be lost and a notional monetary fine. This caution will be applicable if it is a motorist's first offence only. Subsequent offences will carry the real penalty. One strike and you are out.

The Labor Party will be supporting Mr Osborne's amendment to introduce a two-year sunset clause. I understand that the cameras will be operated for 18 months and then the Government will have six months in which to conduct a study and evaluate the results and their effectiveness. Passage of these amendments will be proof to the people of Canberra that these cameras are not purely a revenue raising exercise, but are about changing driver attitude and behaviour. I would expect that an independent body would conduct this report. Then again, using the terms "independent body" and "the current Government" in the same sentence really does stretch one's faith.

Mr Speaker, these amendments will test the Government's commitment to road safety. If the Government supports the amendments it will demonstrate that it is genuine about road safety. It is really sad to hear the Government complaining about the delay in the introduction of the cameras because it is costing the ACT $7,000 a day. When the general public hear this they are automatically sceptical that the cameras are designed for their own safety. They do not believe it. It is a shame that this had to be said.

From my discussions with various motoring organisations, all have placed emphasis on a road safety scheme. The NRMA referred to the five Es. Mr Speaker, the first E is for education. This relates to general education in schools, of course, and advance publicity, the strength of publicity, the in-your-face type of publicity. It also refers to the sort of thing I am talking about, an amnesty period so that we can frighten people into doing the right thing without slamming them first up.

The second E is for engineering. This relates to road quality. We have great roads in the ACT. The Minister has been saying in the media that that is, if anything, a contributing factor for people speeding, and I would agree with him because people ignore the posted speed signs. They see a nice road and they just go for it, and we need to change that attitude. It is that attitude that we need to change. We also need to make sure the engineering behind the cameras is the best that we can get, and I am convinced, thanks to the briefing that the Minister arranged, that that is about where we are at at this minute. I think later on down the track we will get more sophisticated stuff and we will move to that.

The third E, Mr Speaker, is for evaluation, and this is where we test whether or not our hypotheses are correct. I do not believe some of the statistics that have been bandied around. I do not believe that there has been a reduction of 80 per cent in speeding in the States. I do acknowledge, however, that there has been a significant drop. I think some of the figures are pretty wild - 80 per cent, 60 per cent and that sort of thing. They are pretty wild figures, but I would accept something in the order of 20 to 30 per cent, and

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