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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Wednesday, 11 February 2004) . . Page.. 261 ..

recall, says “Caution aged”, but I have never been able to see any to do that, so I presume that it has another meaning.

I do not have a problem with this. Mr Pratt’s motion calls for a review. I take the point that Mr Wood has made about the timing. I do not think it is an unreasonable request, Mr Wood. This will probably be brought up again in this place in two or three years time, but you and I won’t have to worry about it.

Amendments agreed to.

MR PRATT (6.48), in reply: I thank members for taking this matter up. In reference to Mr Wood’s comment, we do not want to see X accidents reported, involving a certain level of injury or death, before we decide to act. We would rather see preventive action and audits, such as we are proposing, to head them off at the pass.

Mr Wood: We do that all the time.

MR PRATT: Yes, but we are saying that we need to see that process strengthened, and with a firmer deadline, so we can get a snapshot of where we are in the territory. I believe the department has sufficient feedback from schools, and outstanding applications from schools that have major concerns and need departmental assistance, to know that a review is needed.

I can assure the minister that I did not put this motion on the paper for the sake of my health. I have plenty of other Assembly business on my plate. I put this motion down because I think it is a very important issue and we would like to see the department able to support schools in getting their OH&S practices right.

I am quite happy to talk to the minister about negotiating an extension of time if we are shown that the scope of the task is a little complex. I agree with the minister that these are complex and difficult issues, and I said that in my speech. I have said today that we recognise that there is positive intent on the part of the departments. We are also saying that we would just like to encourage firmer action on the part of the partners.

Ms Tucker raised a very important issue. I had not thought about traffic management, and I agree with that. It is closely related to this issue and, Minister, so is the issue of traffic flow. I take your advice that traffic flow assessment is a pretty extensive exercise, so perhaps we could talk about that again as well. Ms Dundas raised the very important issue of speed. She is right. Under the increasing pressures of daily life, whether we like it or not, the reality is that people are driving to work and coming home faster.

Finally, I thank members and I thank the minister for being prepared to take this one on. We are more concerned to see a positive audit that identifies weaknesses that need to be rectified than to see an audit that chases fault. We are not about chasing fault; we are about identifying weakness and doing rectifying action.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

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