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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1011 ..

MR SMYTH: The former Spence Primary School was closed at the end of 1998, after a number of years of declining enrolments, and my colleague the Minister for Education tells me that it occurred with the agreement of the whole school community. There were a number of votes and they all agreed to consolidate on the one side. Because the community chose to consolidate on one side, the school zone that had covered the surrounding streets was removed in March 1999. That was consistent with the policy that covered the provision of school zones.

Mr Speaker, a child-care centre and a preschool now operate out of the buildings that were used by the primary school, and warning signs were put in place, because I think everyone in this place would say that road safety - particularly the road safety of the youngest members of our community - is something we should all take very seriously. The warning signs, which were installed in August 1999, advised that the preschool and the child-care centre were there, which was again consistent with the policy at that time.

There was some interaction with the community, who made representations that they would like a school zone back, particularly the 40-kilometre an hour zone on Baddeley Street. As a result of this, and some approaches that I have had from other preschools and child-care centres, I asked the department to review that policy to see whether there was a need to put school zones in other locations.

There are some 81 preschools in the ACT. Two of those are incorporated into schools, nine are co-located in school buildings, 35 are adjoining the school grounds, and 13 are in the neighbourhood of a school, and so are covered, but 24 are isolated or stand-alone preschools. I got the review that the department did and, having looked at what was suggested, I could see that its recommendations were that the 40-kilometre zones be introduced just on an applied basis - if a preschool asked, then we would consider giving it to them.

The report actually also suggested that we might go to the New South Wales system, which stipulates that school zones only operate on the hours when students are approaching and leaving a school, say at 9 and 3 o'clock. I did not think that was appropriate, particularly when you consider the way the preschool system works. You have two shifts: One comes early in the morning and leaves at midday; the second shift comes after lunch and goes at just after 3 o'clock. So it is not appropriate for us to adopt a New South Wales-style system and, indeed, if you then applied that to a child-care centre - were we to determine that child-care centres also should have these zones - then, clearly, some of the busiest times for child-care centres are actually in the school holidays when the zones are not in force.

So, I think we need to lead on this issue simply because the safety of those young ones, as they go to and from school, is of paramount importance. I considered the report and, as a result of that, decided that all 24 preschools should have the school zones installed, and they will be installed on the public streets to cover the preschools within their hours of operation.

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