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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-18 Daily Xml
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ROAD SIGNAGE

The Hon. G.M. GUNN (Stuart) (15:31): Mr Speaker, I wish to—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Can I say to the Attorney that he looks after his problems and I will deal with my electorate and continue to raise issues of importance. I have received a letter from the manager of the Innamincka Trading Post, expressing concern about the lack of adequate signs in the Moomba Birdsville and Innamincka area. The house would probably be aware that there are very large numbers of tourists travelling to the north of South Australia to look at Lake Eyre and continuing on further. The letter states:

During the past few months there has been much confusion on roads/tracks between Innamincka, Moomba and Birdsville area in regard to road signage or lack thereof. The first being the old Strzelecki Track where the Fifteen Mile Track branches off to either Moomba or Walkers Crossing. The sign has been missing for approximately two years causing people travelling the track to veer right causing them to head for Walkers Crossing, where they can get into fine sand drifts and sometimes have to be rescued by a recovery team...

The second road in question is the Birdsville to Innamincka road via Walkers Crossing. There is no sign at the junction of Innamincka and Moomba and Tourists have taken the wrong road on numerous occasions meaning that they have ended up at Moomba and had to back track to Innamincka and on occasions tourists have run out of fuel due to the extra distance that is travelled. Running out of fuel in the summer can be very dangerous with not many vehicles on the road and temperatures in the high 50s. It should be noted that the only places that fuel is available within approximately 500 kms are Birdsville, Innamincka and Lyndhurst meaning that any extra distance travelled could be life threatening if they run out of fuel. This road is closed i.e. Walkers Crossing as is the Simpson Desert from the 1st December to 1st March each year as it is considered too dangerous to travel during the summer.

I bring this matter to the attention of the house, and I hope that the Minister for Transport can have his officers fix those problems as soon as possible.

I wish to make one or two other comments. I have before the house a bill dealing with an independent review of expiation offences, which is an important matter in a democracy, because the parliament in its wisdom has imposed an unfair—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: No, the LCL started it.

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: —well, you have perfected it—and unreasonable attack on people's civil liberties. I mentioned a case the other day where a constituent of mine had to put $2,000 in a lawyer's trust account before he could get the lawyer to go and defend him, even though he was innocent—and, fortunately, the magistrate agreed that he was innocent.

I received an extraordinary letter from the Local Government Association from one Wendy Campana, attempting to ridicule my decision to stick up for people against bureaucracy. I am absolutely amazed at this letter, and I wonder whether she has been reading Alice in Wonderland or Winnie the Pooh, because she makes a comment that she has a survey. I am dealing with members of local government all the time, and not one of them has complained about my bill. I am dealing with the immediate past president of the association on a regular basis. I am sure my brother, who is a mayor, would tell me very clearly if they were unhappy with it. Wendy Campana said in her letter:

I am writing in relation to the Expiation of Offences (Independent Review) Amendment Bill...which you recently introduced into parliament...

The LGA sought feedback from its member councils on the proposals contained in the bill, as councils have significant responsibilities under the Expiation of Offences Act...Responses indicated that councils do not support the proposal to insert a further layer of review into the act.

What my review does is give people the ability to defend themselves in a fair and reasonable manner. The current arrangement is quite unfair, and I would say that what the executive director is proposing is putting bureaucracy before the rights of individuals. That is what she is doing. The letter continues, 'Councils consider that there are currently sufficient safeguards.' That is an absolute nonsense and, if she believes that, I say: heaven help us; because what happens is the police delay the process deliberately, people cannot get before the courts and it costs them hundreds of dollars to prove their innocence.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G.M. GUNN: Now, if they were given the chance to have the independent review—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. The member for Light.

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