Page 1178 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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ACT driver and every ACT rider obeyed the speed limit from today on, our road toll would reduce and so would the burden of lasting injury. As an added bonus lower speeds mean lower greenhouse emissions.
I believe there is merit in at least considering the wider use of 40 kilometres per hour zones around shopping and community facilities, including aged-care facilities. To be sure, the government’s traffic officials and its traffic police can advise and strategise and determine costings and savings. What they cannot say is whether the price—the cultural shift, the learning of new behaviours—is one our community is willing to pay. I cannot say either, though I might have an idea what I might personally say.
Australian speed limits are high by international standards. We ought not to be deluded by what we see on some of those great thriller movies that we all love to watch. Worldwide the trend and the public demand are for lower speed limits, particularly in urban areas. From the 1970s onwards we in the ACT progressively accepted 40 kilometres per hour speed limits outside schools. In 2003 we adopted a 50 kilometres per hour default speed limit in built-up areas. We have monitored with interest the expansion of 40 kilometres per hour zones in other jurisdictions in areas of high pedestrian activity. Are we ready and willing for such reforms here? Will we engage in a proper conversation or will we make this political? One thing is certain: we do not want to copy what others have done for the sake of it. We want to save lives.
As Mr Corbell mentioned, this is an issue that the Labor Party and the ACT Greens agreed to pursue through inquiry in discussions that we held last year. Referring this issue to the Standing Committee on Planning, Public Works and Territory and Municipal Services for detailed consideration and report is, we in the government and within the Labor Party believe, the most appropriate mechanism for consulting the community on this important issue. There will, of course, be the added advantage that the Liberal Party, too, will be able to exert its views and represent its constituency over the course of such an inquiry.
The ACT government assumed government late last year with the views of the community regarding consultation ringing in our ears. It would be an abrogation of everything that we have promised to pursue and which the Greens stand for if today the Assembly does not accept this opportunity to engage intimately in the provision of advice to the government on this important matter. I do hope that all members of the Assembly will support the government and not squander the opportunity that is being held out today to be a part of a very significant and important inquiry which we believe should be undertaken by the Assembly. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (11.36): I thank Mr Stanhope for bringing this motion before the Assembly today. I obviously understand the reasons why he has brought it forward today. While I support the intent of this motion, I do not see it as a matter for an Assembly inquiry. It was agreed between Labor and the Greens, in negotiating the parliamentary agreement after the election, that the next ACT government would consult on introducing 40-kilometre-per-hour speed limits around shops and community centres. That is what we would like to see happening now.
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