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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1007 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

The need for this motion was first brought to my attention during last year's hearings of the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services, which I chair, on the issue of traffic calming devices. Also it was brought to my attention by parents of children who attend the preschool at Spence, but I will talk about that later. During the hearings about the calming devices, the behaviour of drivers around schools was raised a number of times, and I must say, Mr Speaker, it was not raised in a favourable light.

The matter also received extensive media coverage in direct response to the representations being made by the Spence Preschool community in relation to this school, some parents of the children and also neighbours of the school. It reflects the fact that a 40-kilometre per hour zone used to exist when the Spence Preschool shared the site with a primary school, which is closed. This particular site is almost entirely surrounded by roads, and care is obviously needed by the children, their parents and also drivers entering or exiting that area. And, of course, there are many other preschools within the Territory that deserve our attention and the protection of this arrangement.

There was also some discussion as to whether preschools are schools and therefore whether they were entitled to school zone status. This Government is always flexible in its approach to the issues, so discussions were taken to the Minister concerned and the Government has now accepted my argument that a preschool fits the same definition as a primary school. It is a place to which children travel to receive instruction. Preschool teachers receive the same level of training as high school or primary school teachers, and their job is to educate.

I have advocated that the same safety conditions should apply at all school levels, and the Government has agreed to this. Indeed, after my discussions with Minister Smyth, he has now announced that all preschools which are not currently 40-kilometre zoned will become so. On that issue, Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table a press statement by the Minister.

Leave granted.

MR HIRD: My motion has focused this issue and the desired outcome has been achieved. This initiative will cost somewhere in the order of $36,000 territory-wide, a small price to pay for improved child safety, Mr Speaker.

I will raise with my colleagues on the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services at a later time the issue of whether the same speed zoning should apply to streets around care centres. The reason I have brought this matter to the Assembly this day, after achieving the obvious result - getting the Government to implement the policy that Minister Smyth has promulgated in his press statement, and to spend the $36,000 - is to ask this chamber to endorse my action in approaching the Minister, and his action in introducing 40-kilometre zones around preschools. Therefore, I seek the Assembly's endorsement of the Minister's and my actions on this issue.

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