Page 3000 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
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MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Minister, were any studies done to assess traffic and parking demands over a variety of times during the week and weekends before arriving at this decision? If so, what were the results and, if not, why were those studies not undertaken.
MR RATTENBURY: What I will do, Mrs Jones, is I will take part of that on notice to see what information is available if you would like the specific details. As I indicated earlier, there was a series of discussions undertaken between Roads ACT and the residents in the area, but Roads, of course, looked at it more broadly. I will have to take on notice some of the specifics and provide those to you at a later time if you wish.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
DR BOURKE: Minister, this change has been brought about by the concerns of residents. How often does this kind of advocacy lead to parking arrangements changing?
MR RATTENBURY: I think this is one of the very challenging issues that the government is trying to deal with at the moment—the tension between the desire of Canberra’s residents to not have any cars parked on their streets and the desire of Canberra residents to drive to work and park for free. This is quite a challenge for the government because there is a disconnect between these two positions, one that the community is quite engaged in in terms of it evoking strong passions on both sides of the argument.
It varies depending on the location. Certainly the areas around the parliamentary triangle are areas that particularly come into focus. But there are areas around Woden. Residents in suburbs such as Lyons, Chifley and Curtin have written to me about these kinds of matters. They have been the two areas where I have particularly received representations.
The approach TAMS takes is to try and balance the competing issues. For example, in Forrest, where there is a school, restrictions have been put in place because it particularly evokes a safety issue around the coming and going of children and extensive parking in the street. It is done on a case-by-case basis, depending primarily on safety factors, but also on the ability of residents to get in and out of their street during certain times and the width of those streets and the capability to have parking in them. There is not a hard and fast rule as such. It is something where TAMS tries to draw the best outcome for as much of the community as possible.
Disability services—Disability ACT
MR WALL: My question is to the Minister for Disability, Children and Young people. Minister, the transition to the national disability insurance scheme will see the opening of a DisabilityCare office here in the ACT. Minister, what role will Disability ACT fulfil once the DisabilityCare office has commenced operation in the territory?
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