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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 9 Hansard (31 August) . . Page.. 2600 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

that she realised a mistake had been made. It is possible that she would have said, "Oh, dear, that's not the electricity bill. Oh, well, I'll pay it anyway". Imagine her mirth and relief as well, Mr Speaker, when she spotted that her car was nothing more than an appendage to Athol Morris, the car wreckers.

Other problems have occurred when cameras have booked the wrong vehicle because they were unable to distinguish between a V and a U. Mr Speaker, I suspect there are some geriatrics in this place who would have trouble distinguishing between a V and a U. I am confident at the moment that the technology that we are paying 50 grand a year for is about as good as we can get in addressing that one. I sincerely hope it is.

Mr Speaker, the ACT should set the standards with speed and red light cameras for the rest of the country. We should learn from the problems of those other States and ensure that they do not occur here. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with speed cameras in the States, and I would hope that when the regime here is evaluated we will take into account some of the problems that have been encountered in those States.

The Labor Party, Mr Speaker, will also be supporting red light cameras. At the moment many motorists will run an amber light because they do not want to wait the extra three minutes or end up slamming on their brakes. Red light cameras have worked effectively in other States and are long overdue in the ACT. It is amazing that when we are travelling interstate, such as in Sydney, we are cautious not to run the red lights. However, when we get back to Canberra we slip back into our bad habits.

Mr Speaker, the Labor Party is supportive of any program which will reduce the number of accidents on our roads. However, we do not want to see revenue from these initiatives going straight into consolidated revenue. We do not want to see a repeat of the insurance levy. It reaped $10m. Emergency Services got $1m, and $9m has gone into the black hole. We do not want to see that happen with the $2.5m from the speed cameras. We want this revenue to be spent on improving our roads and on introducing new driver behaviour schemes. We will be watching the Government to ensure that the windfall from these cameras actually has an impact on enhancing our road safety.

Mr Speaker, I have indicated that I will be moving an amendment and I seek the Assembly's support for it. Other than that, we will be supporting the Government's initiative.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 12.31 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 74. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day.

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