Mrs BRAHAM - 2001-06-06
Minister, you will recall the fatal accident on the Lasseter Highway on New Year’s Eve in 1999 which resulted in the tragic deaths of three young people. The Coroner, in his findings delivered in March this year, made recommendations regarding safety measures to be introduced along the highway leading into Yulara. I believe the parents of those victims have written to you. These recommendations included placing signs on those tracks that are frequently used by tourist operators to warn motorists entering off such tracks and the introduction of speed restrictions to slow down traffic entering Yulara.
Minister, you said at the time the Coroner brought down his findings that you would make a response. Have you introduced any safety measures and if not, when will we see some?
ANSWER
A very good question, Mr Speaker. As this Assembly would know, we recently introduced the Road Safety Strategy for 2001-03. I am aware of the Coroner’s statements in relation to that accident on the Lasseter Highway. Last week I met with the Chairman of the Road Safety Council and they are putting forward a number of recommendations in response to the Coroner’s findings. It is not only the Lassetter Highway that the Road Safety Council is addressing its concerns to. There are stretches of the Stuart Highway and the Victoria Highway that the Road Safety Council wants the government to look at.
We do have a very active Road Safety Council. The regional committees of the Road Safety Council are fairly active and we rely heavily upon them to provide technical and policy advice to this government. I will shortly be taking to Cabinet a range of proposals put to me by the Road Safety Council so that we can improve the road safety issues in the Northern Territory.
We all know that we do not have a particularly good record in relation to road safety. There are a number of issues that we need to address not only in terms of signage and speed limits. We need to address issues such as the condition of motor cars that are coming into the Northern Territory especially driven by backpackers - you know, that they have purchased in Queensland. There is real concern in the industry that those vehicles are plainly not safe. Whilst not wanting to discourage backpackers coming into the Territory, we need to have a look at some of those vehicles.
There was an accident last year wherein four young British tourists were killed. I understand that that could be largely attributed to the state of the tyres on that motor car. It was a straight safety issue. There are a whole range of issues that we need to address and the inordinately high representation of Aboriginal people in the road statistics in terms of education needs to be addressed. There are a whole range of issues that we need to take on board and we just cannot deal with them in isolation. It is the whole package ...
Mrs Braham: Why don’t you just fix that particular stretch of road?
Mr PALMER: That is what I am saying; the Road Safety Council is bringing a whole range of suggestions to us including the fix on that stretch of road. I will be taking it to my colleagues and discussing it and we will do something in the near future.
Minister, you said at the time the Coroner brought down his findings that you would make a response. Have you introduced any safety measures and if not, when will we see some?
ANSWER
A very good question, Mr Speaker. As this Assembly would know, we recently introduced the Road Safety Strategy for 2001-03. I am aware of the Coroner’s statements in relation to that accident on the Lasseter Highway. Last week I met with the Chairman of the Road Safety Council and they are putting forward a number of recommendations in response to the Coroner’s findings. It is not only the Lassetter Highway that the Road Safety Council is addressing its concerns to. There are stretches of the Stuart Highway and the Victoria Highway that the Road Safety Council wants the government to look at.
We do have a very active Road Safety Council. The regional committees of the Road Safety Council are fairly active and we rely heavily upon them to provide technical and policy advice to this government. I will shortly be taking to Cabinet a range of proposals put to me by the Road Safety Council so that we can improve the road safety issues in the Northern Territory.
We all know that we do not have a particularly good record in relation to road safety. There are a number of issues that we need to address not only in terms of signage and speed limits. We need to address issues such as the condition of motor cars that are coming into the Northern Territory especially driven by backpackers - you know, that they have purchased in Queensland. There is real concern in the industry that those vehicles are plainly not safe. Whilst not wanting to discourage backpackers coming into the Territory, we need to have a look at some of those vehicles.
There was an accident last year wherein four young British tourists were killed. I understand that that could be largely attributed to the state of the tyres on that motor car. It was a straight safety issue. There are a whole range of issues that we need to address and the inordinately high representation of Aboriginal people in the road statistics in terms of education needs to be addressed. There are a whole range of issues that we need to take on board and we just cannot deal with them in isolation. It is the whole package ...
Mrs Braham: Why don’t you just fix that particular stretch of road?
Mr PALMER: That is what I am saying; the Road Safety Council is bringing a whole range of suggestions to us including the fix on that stretch of road. I will be taking it to my colleagues and discussing it and we will do something in the near future.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016