Page 128 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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Those opposite have mentioned numerous times that we should be doing more to encourage children to walk or ride to school, not making it easier to drive. These measures do make it easier and safer to walk or ride to school. Is it lost on those opposite that it is not only parents driving children to school who drive through school zones?
Crossing supervisors provide invaluable supervision at the most dangerous times of the school day, ensuring that children are not ducking in and out of cars, remain aware of their surroundings and cross the road safely.
Too often this Labor-Greens government continues to disregard parents’ genuine safety concerns as scaremongering or dismisses them outright without explanation.
The priorities outlined in Ms Lee’s motion are important and are clearly common sense. The community wants and needs flashing lights and crossing supervisors to ensure that our young people are safe. It is up to the minister to take these concerns seriously and deliver the infrastructure that will achieve this. If, as Ms Cheyne suggests, we are preaching to the converted, why not support Ms Lee’s motion? If the Labor Party and the Greens are serious about prioritising active travel, supporting this motion would be a no brainer.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (11.30): I thank everyone for their contributions but especially thank Miss C Burch for her support of my motion.
Well, Madam Assistant Speaker, it is another private members’ day and another day that a minister hijacks the only day we have to bring debate on in this chamber. It is becoming routine that those on the other side are so desperately insecure that they have to rewrite everything we put up in a motion whether they agree with it or not. When evidence such as what I have presented today is ignored for no particular reason, and a motion is rewritten just for the sake of doing it, you have to start questioning whether this government have become so arrogant that they do not need to take comment from anyone. Let us face it; they could not even bring themselves to agree to a sentence that said:
… the safety of children travelling to and from school is of paramount importance …
Instead, they chose to rewrite the exact same sentence in the amendment that we have seen.
The minister refers to record investment in public transport. It might be record investment, but so far we have not seen a good return on that investment. We get 51 fewer school buses and we get only a privileged handful of schools getting crossing supervisors. We have a few painted lines and some graphics on the transport and education directorate websites. I am sure that motorists look at both of those on a daily basis—not.
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