Page 191 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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The Canberra Liberals were also extremely proud to announce that we would enhance the street sweeping program, a service so many people in Canberra think should be a core function of a local government. In my years in this place, basic municipal services such as grass mowing, graffiti removal and street sweeping are amongst the most frequent concerns raised with me as a local member. The government has let down the electors of the ACT and has failed to deliver better local services in exchange for the increasing rates revenue they are collecting off the captive taxation base.
On 30 May Mr Seselja and I announced that the Canberra Liberals would install school zone speed lights at every ACT school, if elected. Such signs are a simple way of reminding drivers to slow down in school zones and are effective in other states. As a result of Mr Rattenbury’s decision to join the Labor government, this policy will not be enacted and Canberra’s school zones will not be as safe as they should be. As the new Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, I hope he will accept that this is good policy and, as part 2 of the motion states, “improve Canberra’s road network by implementing the Canberra Liberals’ policies”.
Let me remind the Assembly of what some notable people have said about the installation of flashing lights in school zones. The New South Wales Commissioner for Children and Young People, Ms Vanessa Whittington, said:
… the Commission believes every school in New South Wales should have a flashing light warning system in place so that all children enjoy the same level of protection. The Commission supports the Auditor-General’s recommendation to improve the visibility of school zones by increasing the use of flashing light warning systems and fitting flashing lights at all school zones with non-standard operating times.
Mrs Kelly MacDonald from the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of New South Wales said:
Flashing lights remind drivers of the presence of a school in the area and therefore the presence of students as pedestrians. It is unfortunate that drivers can sometimes choose to ignore road signs around schools especially when trials have shown that drivers reduce speeds significantly when flashing lights operate.
Our policy would have complemented existing policing, community awareness and school-specific measures aimed at combating speeding and other road safety issues.
Finally, the motion I move today calls for the Labor-Greens government to implement our policy to provide thousands more car parking spaces across the ACT. As the member for Ginninderra, I was proud to be part of an announcement to provide hundreds more car parks in Belconnen, including 500 new car parks in the town centre over and above natural growth, and 100 spaces at Calvary hospital. We also committed to more spots at Erindale and elsewhere in the ACT.
The Canberra Liberals are proud of the policies we took to the election, and we were pleased to receive much positive feedback about our plans. The options we put
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