Road Traffic (Mail Zones) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (10:45): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Road Traffic Act 1961. Read a first time.

Second Reading

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (10:46): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The reasoning behind my introduction of the changes to the Road Traffic (Mail Zones) Amendment Bill 2017 is predicated on the difficulty I often have, and many people have, of finding a park in North Adelaide or in the city. This was definitely highlighted for me last year when I was attending the North Adelaide Primary School graduation. I drove around and around and around North Adelaide and kept passing these fantastic car parks in front of post office boxes that would have been terrific, but I could not park in front of them.

It occurred to me that we have these wonderful car parks available that are not available and that we are restricted from using 24 hours a day, seven days a week, when in fact the mail vans are only there from about 6pm to maybe a maximum of 7pm. They are only there for five minutes to pick up mail, so why take up a really perfect parking spot in the city, in North Adelaide, or in any of the suburbs where there are parking issues, when they are really not needed for all that time.

You see on a postbox, if you have read it, that your mail needs to be in by 6pm, and that is from Sunday through to Friday. It used to be next day delivery for 70¢, but now it is several days delivery for $1, so there is even less urgency for them to have unrestricted parking 24 hours a day, seven days a week because the mail is not in that big a hurry to get to us anymore.

When I attended the graduation at North Adelaide, I was speaking to the principal about how difficult it was to get a park. She commented that they had their first ever community concert and that they had received calls from around 30 grandparents who had driven quite long distances to come to see their grandchildren at the concert. They were not able to get a park anywhere, so they drove all the way home. I thought that if we could make a difference of even one park or two parks (in North Adelaide there are 12 and in the city there are 55), then that would have made a difference for those 12 grandparents. To me, it is just common sense.

Recently, the Adelaide City Council held a managing traffic and parking in North Adelaide community workshop. They also had an online survey for two months for which they received 1,200 submissions from people who completed the survey. From that survey, one of the questions was: is parking for residents a problem? Seventy-two per cent of residents said, yes, it was. On the question of whether parking for workers is a problem, 88 per cent of the workers in this area said yes and 79 per cent of traders said it was a problem. Is parking for visitors a problem? Fifty-two per cent of visitors said yes, but of course there would be fewer visitors filling in a survey that was distributed throughout Adelaide and North Adelaide.

Clearly, parking is an issue. It has been an issue for a great deal of time. I know it is also an issue in suburban areas. I know that getting a park along Prospect Road is very difficult. With more and more high-rise developments, parking is becoming even more at a premium. I particularly had in mind Adelaide and North Adelaide; however, obviously, if we amend the bill, then it would be valid for anywhere in the state, so think about whether or not this is relevant in your own electorate.

This is something that certainly should be considered, and I hope that I will receive the support of the Labor Party on what I think is just a very sensible bill. It is a win without any loss. Residents, workers, shop owners, businesspeople and visitors to the city will all have extra car parking available, and the mail delivery vans can still attend and pick up their mail from Sunday to Friday between 6pm and 7pm.

Last night, I was walking back to our wonderful Hindley Street car park. There is a postbox right in front of the car park, and I managed to chat to the deliveryman who I saw had arrived at five minutes to six. However, he did wait until after six to make sure that, if anyone had any late mail, it would get in. They really do stick to that 6pm because they need to get all the mail that has been put in.

I think the deliveryman said there was one mailbox in Rundle Mall that they sometimes clear during the day, but you cannot park in Rundle Mall anyway, so that would not affect the parking. Certainly, if there were issues, you would just change the parking in front of that particular postbox but, as a general rule, I think it seems crazy to hold up parks—55 in the city, 12 in North Adelaide and hundreds throughout the suburbs—24 hours a day, seven days a week, when realistically the pick-up is for about five minutes, six nights a week. I commend this bill to the house, and I hope I will have the support of the Labor Party.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.R. Kenyon.