Ms BURNET (Clark) – Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to speak about the issue of road safety. Everyone recognises that safety on our roads is so important, with the rate of incidents, injuries and deaths still occurring a cause for deep concern. Like many critical issues for our community, there is no one easy fix to make our roads safer. There are numerous factors behind what we are seeing on our roads and of course there is a range of great programs that are already underway, however there is always more to be done.
Last week was Road Safety Week. I joined with the Minister for Transport as the Greens spokesperson for transport at the launch of Road Safety Week and there was the founder of Safer Australian Roads and Highways at the national launch at TMAG. It was pleasing to see that road safety received prominent media coverage. Representatives from across the political spectrum and from all levels of government were also making this a focus, but we need to make sure this focus and the words we have all used is reflected in a year-round commitment.
As Greens transport spokesperson I am particularly keen to take a positive and constructive approach to this issue to make sure it stays on the community radar and to feed in suggestions of where improvements can be made
One area we believe there is a real opportunity for improvement is road safety around schools. We recognise the many significant measures already taken over the past few years to make things better. However, if you talk to parents at many schools, they will still tell you they have concerns. Quite often it is those people close to their community, who know the roads very well, who have much of the intelligence on what is happening and the dangers. Whether it is unsafe intersections or congestion of traffic that cause unpredictable car movements, people are still going too fast through school areas. Issues with bus drop-off locations and crossings, areas where the same problem crops up time and time again, or something else – we know where there are problems. This is especially true around school pickup and drop-off times.
Last week, I was at South Hobart Primary School with Greens councillor and local parent Gemma Kitsos, who could readily identify a range of road safety concerns around the school. This was no surprise. Everyone who takes a child to and from school knows the area well, but all too often these local insights are only discussed between parents at the school gate or in the home. People do not know the who, what or how of bringing up such issues with those responsible for fixing them.
The Greens believe there is a real opportunity for improving road safety around schools by drawing on the local knowledge and insights of people who are interacting regularly with specific infrastructure or a particular area. Drawing on this knowledge can give us a better sense of how things are working on the ground and help us identify possible changes.
I have written to the Minister for Transport in relation to this. On behalf of the Greens, we are putting forward an idea to the government to set up and promote an easy‑to‑use, centralised, dedicated way for parents and school communities to report road safety concerns. This is an important step that could be taken to improve our understanding of what is really happening around our schools. It is also a great way of increasing the awareness around school safety year‑round. We believe using a single well‑promoted app or website for all schools, where parents, the broader school community and locals can feed in what they are seeing, could have big benefits. There may be some immediate quick fixes identified.
Over time, the government and other relevant bodies will be able to build an understanding of commonly identified school and local issues. This could include infrastructure, signage, education, changes to car movements or speed, or other measures. The Greens believe this is an idea that could make a meaningful difference to road safety around schools, and we hope the Minister for Transport will give it real consideration. After all, it is the safety of the most vulnerable of road users, and to the benefit of all when we make our roads around schools safer.
