Page 1180 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Another item in the parliamentary agreement is for the government to revive the small business roundtable. There are many matters that the roundtable could engage government over, ranging from the impacts of the looming recession to the best way to support commercial waste management. The viability of local shops is another issue and the implementation of 40-kilometre-per-hour zones would be another.
Finally, I would like to address the matter of timing. I do not believe that the government needs to give itself until June 2010. I understand the date was suggested in order to ensure that the planning and municipal services committee would have time to do the job properly. My thought is that the ACT government could get it done in half the time and organise any consequent implementation in time to factor in to the 2010-11 budget. But we are mindful that this motion was an initiative of the minister, so we will not be putting forward any time frame.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (11.40): There is no doubt that we must do our best to ensure the safety of all Canberrans that use roads, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorists and motorcyclists. There are many different activity centres that require different approaches to road management to provide for both safe and efficient commuting.
I agree that we need to consider different speed limits for different types of shopping centres and community facilities. A blanket approach will not work and will only lead to increased frustration for commuters where reduced speed limits may not be necessary. It is clear that traffic flow around the Belconnen town centre is substantially different from traffic flow around Manuka and Kingston. Local centres provide another challenge. The hours of operation of reduced speed limits could also vary as the use of each different type of centre varies at different times of the day.
The opposition supports the amendment by the Greens to refer the matter to the government for consultation and report back to the Assembly. Consultation is important in such a matter because of the unique challenges and solutions that may apply at different centres. The opposition also supports the addition of a new item, the impact on pedestrian and cyclist safety, as this is the key reason for consideration of the alteration of speed zones. I understand that other jurisdictions, including Victoria, have varied speed limits at some shopping precincts and I hope we can learn from their experience.
Listening to the Chief Minister’s rant just a few minutes ago, you would think that this was absolutely pressing. You would think that we could not waste another day. Yet here we have a motion moved by the Chief Minister which says they are not to report back until 2010. If this is absolutely pressing, as the tone of his speech suggested, why are we waiting for 15, 16, 17 or 18 months to get action? If we report back in 2010, there is a fair chance that it would not actually come on until the budget of 2011-12. He said that this was absolutely pressing. Every day that goes by, we have got unsafe roads, according to the Chief Minister.
He also claimed that he was the champion of this Assembly, this Assembly’s rights and this Assembly’s consultation ability and everything else. This is the same person who fought against FOI reform. This is the same person who will not release the Costello review. I find it absolutely amazing. It is also the same minister who
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