School Crossing Road Safety

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:06): My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. On the weekend it was announced that $80.1 million would be allocated to road safety, with approximately half of that funding allocated to school crossings and signage. Can the minister advise if there will be an avenue for schools who have already identified safety issues with their current crossings to put forward a submission to be considered? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BELL: Two principals in my electorate, namely Suttontown Primary School and Allendale East Area School, have raised serious concerns with me regarding the safety of their students and the school's current inadequate crossing infrastructure.

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Special Minister of State) (15:07): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. I acknowledge that he has been a dedicated servant of his community, that they look to him for leadership, including in relation to road safety, and that they have come to him in relation to this very important issue. This is but one of the significant matters the member for Mount Gambier has rightly raised with me since I assumed portfolio responsibilities.

This government is committed to ensuring the safety of children in and around schools, and it is for that reason that a number of programs have been announced or are already on foot. In terms of prebudget announcements, the member will know, of course, and the house will be aware, that there is a particular and close focus on pedestrian-activated crossings, and also a focus on ensuring that there is more enforcement and scrutiny around the movement of vehicles around schools, particularly on arterial roads.

The member's question is an important one, and one that I will seek additional advice and come back to the house on, but I wanted to add this by way of context with respect to my answer, and I know that these are matters that are likely to be ventilated further in the course of the estimates process that is to come. There are, of course, two pools of detection cameras that are being contemplated by this government by way of most recent announcement. The first is a pool of 15. Three of those, I am advised, will be point-to-point cameras, the remaining 12 will be red-light detection cameras. We know that there must be a renewed and sustained focus on road safety, because last year 117 lives were lost on South Australian roads, and this year 38 lives have already been lost.

Second, there will be another pool of 15 cameras that will be used for enforcement on arterial roads and other significant high traffic volume roads in and around schools. The Treasurer and I of course made this announcement at Marryatville High School, where there had been two students who were struck by a truck, one of whom was very seriously injured, and there was a third student who I understand avoided injury very narrowly.

This is a matter of acute community interest. It's a matter that the member for Mount Gambier has rightly raised with me. It's a matter that other members will continue to raise with me. I am sure it will be. Despite whatever else might be said from a policy position of the opposition, local members on the opposition side will continue to raise it with me. We will keep a sustained focus on these issues.

Can I say this with respect to questions, concerns or focus around different speed limits in Adelaide: the counterfactual in terms of 25-kilometre speed limits, which will remain in place on local roads, is that there are many local roads in and around preschools, primary schools and all schools. If it is the case that there is to be a proposal that that 25 km/h limit were to be removed, the counterfactual is this: where would that occur, and which communities would be comfortable with that?

You do not get to exist for free in this policy space; nobody does. These are very significant and important road safety matters, and these matters have to be considered very carefully. Any criticism with respect to additional measures that are designed to protect children have to be examined more broadly statewide. These comments are made specifically in relation to the opposition and not the member for Mount Gambier, who is a very careful and thoughtful contributor and who has raised this issue specifically with me—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired. Minister, take your seat please. I call the member for Florey.