Page 5495 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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I do agree that random drug testing alone will not solve the issue of drug driving. No measure works in isolation. We need to continue to tackle drink driving, and we await some action from the government on this. We have a disgraceful rate of DUI in the ACT and this government has failed to act. For eight years, it has failed to act.
We have the most lax drink-driving legislation in Australia. We are all awaiting some action from the government on DUI, and I hope this will now prompt them to act. But no matter how much action they take on DUI, if they ignore random drug testing then they are ignoring half of the problem. We must give our police the ability to tackle the drug-driving problem as well as the drink-driving problem if we are to reduce the carnage on our roads and make our roads as safe as they can be.
I do believe that this single change that we are proposing today in this legislation will be a significant step forward and will have a positive transformative effect within the community. It will impact on attitudes surrounding drugs and driving, just as the DUI legislation did when that was introduced many years ago. It will impact on the culture of drug driving and it will reduce the incidence of drug driving.
Finally, I wish to state that the opposition is happy to work with the government and the Greens on this bill. The community expect us to act on this and they will not tolerate any political party that plays politics with road safety and with people’s lives. This is worthy legislation. It will save lives and it will reduce the carnage on our roads. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stanhope) adjourned to the next sitting.
Planning and Development (Notifications and Review) Amendment Bill 2009
Ms Le Couteur, pursuant to notice, presented the bill.
Title read by Clerk.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (10.22): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I am introducing this bill today to propose a few improvements in the current planning legislation. The current Planning and Development Act, effective since March last year, has now had sufficient time for some of its shortcomings to be brought to our attention. Over the past year while being the Greens planning spokesperson, I have had the opportunity to hear much community feedback on our planning legislation. The issues I raise in my bill today are stand-alone items, which can easily be remedied without affecting other parts of the planning act. The bill proposes solutions to a number of problems which have arisen in our development application process.
There are a number of broader issues within the Planning and Development Act which also need to be remedied, but I understand that the government will be tabling
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