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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Wednesday, 11 February 2004) . . Page.. 256 ..

Mr Pratt: Time precludes speaking about any more.

MR WOOD: It is a problem in this place that you can raise an issue, consider it fully substantiated in what you raise in it and then require some action. There are issues around a school and traffic. As I indicated to Ms Tucker when discussing her amendment, we will respond and give a discussion paper or a report on schools, aged persons units and childcare centres, and we will give you information about the issues and our views on them.

But I am not sure that it is the case to say there are massive problems. There is a significant change in what happens, and I will mention that in a minute. Let me say first of all that DUS and its minister are very concerned about traffic issues around schools. The issue of the safety of our young people is of paramount importance and, if we hear of a report, we want to know about it and we will investigate it.

Having said that our concern is paramount, I have been doing a mental flip through my filing system here as to what accidents there have been around schools in recent times. Early this year, I think, there was a tragic case of a girl killed at a crossing—not a school crossing, a very wide crossing. I do not know if that is related to schools or not.

I recall that some few years ago there was an accident in the car park of a childcare centre with a walloping great four-wheel drive that someone could not see out of. There was an accident in Wanniassa some years ago, the details of which escape me. There was no fatality but something of an accident. When you think that 60,000 to 70,000 students go in and out of school every day, I do not think there is significant evidence of a problem, given the accidents. Let me say again: one accident is a problem. I am not sure that there is significant evidence of a problem, but we will certainly look at these things.

I want Mr Pratt in his conclusion to clear up one thing for me. His motion talks about a review of school crossings. That is what we will do because I can see that is what we would be asked to do, notwithstanding the fact that we do it often enough in response to schools. Mr Pratt, you talked about traffic flow in your last sentence or two. Your motion does not ask about that. That is a much bigger issue and is not something that will be done in quick time. I am happy to talk about traffic flows around schools, but we will be responding to the terms of the motion.

Traffic flow around our schools is an issue. Most of our schools were built in years when most of our students walked to school, and the street outside Torrens school with the car park is a relatively narrow street because that was the pattern of the day. If we build new schools—and I was looking at the parking arrangements at Amaroo—much greater parking facilities are made available and there is much greater consideration of traffic flow because these days most parents, or certainly a heck of a lot of the parents, drive their kids to school.

Our predecessors did not anticipate that when they built Torrens school, or even Fraser school, which is a little more recent. There is an issue there, and schools are beginning to deal with it. I know that schools are developing traffic management plans for those 15 to 20-minute peaks in the morning and afternoon, and it is a good idea. Torrens has got streets right around it, and I would anticipate by now that at Torrens school some of the

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