Page 4426 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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set themselves up and is actually generating income as a result of their Christmas light display, and yet the government was required to spend money on traffic management arrangements, I suspect members of the opposition would expect the government to recoup some of that cost; otherwise it simply becomes an offset out of TAMS’s budget and something else, such as pothole repairs and the removal of graffiti, has to be sacrificed. So these are the factors that are taken into account.
However, that level of discretion allows common sense to be applied. What we have seen is that the decision has been taken, common sense has been applied and, because these residents are raising money for charity, TAMS will not be charging for these residents.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Minister, has the government undertaken a risk assessment or is there any evidence regarding safety concerns at Christmas light displays?
MR RATTENBURY: As I outlined yesterday, TAMS does have concerns. Some of the areas where Christmas light displays take place are on relatively narrow suburban streets. We have situations, and it goes very much to the position Mrs Jones was putting yesterday about playgrounds and the need for fences, where in that kind of environment people pull up, they get out of their cars, children are excited—and rightly so, because it is Christmas time and the lights are attractive and festive—and children are moving around. These are the sorts of concerns that TAMS has. These are the kinds of risk factors that we are trying to think through and why temporary traffic management arrangements need to be put in place.
The other factor that arises is for residents in the same street, some of whom have complained to TAMS at times—
Mr Coe: Point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: Point of order, Mr Coe.
Mr Coe: Madam Speaker, the question was: has the government undertaken a risk assessment or is there any evidence? It was not about—
MADAM SPEAKER: It is the case that that was the question that Mr Coe asked, and I would ask the minister to be directly relevant.
MR RATTENBURY: I was describing exactly the sorts of risks that TAMS chooses to take into account, but Mr Coe is clearly not interested so I have nothing further to add.
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Dr Bourke.
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