Page 630 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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So there is the positive and the negative in both of those areas. What we see developing in New South Wales is a very clear pattern of haves and have-nots - one with skills and decent wages and working conditions and one where skills and wages and working conditions are being undermined by the haves and have-nots program. That is not the sort of system that we will support here in the ACT. Neither was it supported by the people of Australia when they decided to elect the Keating Government. Madam Speaker, the basis of harmony in industrial relations in the ACT will be the Federal Industrial Relations Act and, of course, it is only there because Labor won.
"Keep Left" Signs
MR DE DOMENICO: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. I remind the Minister that this Government rejected an amendment by Mr Westende regarding "keep left" signs. I ask the Minister: Is he aware of certain "keep left" signs that have been erected in Canberra since he rejected that amendment? When were the signs erected? Who authorised their erection? How much did they cost? What force in law do they have?
MR CONNOLLY: I congratulate Mr De Domenico on his elevation to be spokesperson for urban services. It is a very important portfolio and I commend Mr Kaine for his initiative in so promoting Mr De Domenico.
We did reject a proposal to change the law to make it a legal requirement that a person keep left where there is a "keep left" sign, but we said at the time that we thought there was some merit in what Mr Westende was saying; that is, that as a courtesy people ought to keep left on major arterial roads, but rather than coercive legislation we would look to an educative campaign, including the erection of signs. We have been doing that. A number of signs have appeared on the parkway and on Belconnen Way, which say, "keep left unless overtaking". That is the standard form of sign that is employed around Australia. In some States they do have legal force. In the ACT they do not have legal force, but as a courtesy we expect people to obey them, and they seem to be doing that. Mr De Domenico asked for the timing of when those signs were erected. I do not have the precise details on that but the signs were erected before the Federal election, and the motorists of the ACT, observing the "keep left" signs, did exactly that at the ballot-box on 13 March.
MR DE DOMENICO: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I ask the Minister: Is it not true, though, that signs that have no legal standing are usually black and yellow? Is it also true that black-and-white signs, which these are, tend to signify that they have some force in law? If that is not true, can the Minister please explain?
MR CONNOLLY: It is true that those indicative driving condition signs are black and yellow. Signs saying "drive courteously", "revive, stay alive", those sorts of signs that dot our highways, have no legal force but are there to send a message to motorists. The view that the Labor Government took at the time - a view that generally the Liberal Party, we would have thought, would support - was that, rather than immediately jumping to coercive legislation, we would try an educative approach. That was the view that the Government has adopted here.
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