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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1012 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Corbell raised the traffic warrant system and I think Mr Hird's committee, of which Mr Corbell is a member, did a very good job on the warrant system. The Government has, as Mr Corbell has said, adopted the majority of what was suggested there. The warrant system will now be used to determine the priority of establishment for the preschool zones, and I have also asked the department to consult with the preschool association to make sure that we stage this correctly. The cost of installing the school zones at the 24 preschools is estimated at about $36,000, and that will come out of the traffic minor works program on a priority basis. We hope to have that done within the next two or three months.

In relation to the child-care centres, there are some 75 long-day care and occasional care centres operating in the ACT, and they operate from 6.30 am to 6.30 pm. Now, the majority of these, about 44 of them, open before 8 and are closed by 6. The child-care centres operate throughout the year and, as I said, they are often busier in the school holidays. Holidays can be peak periods for parents seeking care, and the introduction of reduced speed limits in the vicinity of child-care centres has to be best considered on the basis of the location, and in the context of the speed limits that generally apply in those residential areas.

The Urban Services Committee is conducting an inquiry into the introduction of a 50-kilometre an hour speed limit in residential areas, and I await that report. At this stage what we will do is spend the money and make sure that the school zones do apply to the 24 isolated or stand-alone preschools, so that we ensure the safety of our preschoolers and their families as they travel to and from school. I thank the Assembly for its support for this motion. I thank Mr Hird for raising this very important issue, and it is nice that we all agree in this place on things of such importance.

MS TUCKER (11.29): I will speak very briefly to this. Mr Hird has just given me a copy of the press release. I am interested in the last paragraph, as well as the general content, which says that it is going to be applied broadly across Canberra, and that it is not just Spence that will have a 40-kilometre zone. That is very sensible and the Greens support that. But I was interested to see, in the final paragraph, that the Minister - and he has just explained it - will be referring the introduction of reduced speed limits in the vicinity of child-care centres to the Urban Services Committee, and I also support that.

He refers to the fact that the committee is examining the 50-kilometre speed limit in place in residential streets in other jurisdictions. I am glad to see that this is acknowledged by the Minister, because I must say I was sorry to see in the newspaper in the last few days - and I cannot remember exactly in what context, or what article it was - that the Chief Minister said pretty clearly that the ACT Government rejected the concept of reducing speed limits to 50 kilometres per hour. I am really glad to see here that the Minister appears to be more open about that, and that a committee is looking at the issue, because these reductions are obviously incredibly sensible. It would be consistent with the Government's approach to the 40-kilometre per hour zones around preschools and child-care centres to be supportive of the idea of reducing the speed limit

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