Ms HOARE (3:58 PM) —I am pleased to speak in support of this private members motion for the fitting of seatbelts on school buses. I congratulate the member for Forde on bringing it forward. I also congratulate all those parents and grandparents of schoolchildren who have campaigned tirelessly to have seatbelts fitted on school buses. However, while I agree with points 1 to 4 in the member's motion, I could not necessarily agree with point 5. But I was pleased to see that the member clarified point 5 when speaking to the motion. This is a national issue that requires national leadership and national regulation. The Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989:

Under this act, the Australian Design Rules are approved as national standards and become part of the Motor Vehicle Standards Act. In 1992, the former member for Charlton and Minister for Land Transport—

Mr Emerson —Your dad.

Ms HOARE —My father, as the member for Rankin has acknowledged, introduced Australian Design Rule 68/00, Occupant Protection in Buses No. 3 of 1992, in October of that year. Because of ongoing review, amendments were made by subsequent Labor ministers in 1994.

Following the two fatal bus crashes on the mid-North Coast of New South Wales which the member for Forde referred to, a number of provisions were made to make bus travel safer. These included extending the roll-over provisions of buses, strengthening the mountings of the seats—in the two fatal crashes, the seats actually came apart from the mountings—and, of course, the introduction of seatbelts. These initial provisions excluded service route buses, which include school buses, but it was the beginning of staged safety improvements on buses.

The initial restriction was made as a result of the staged improvements, with consideration given to convenience and cost. As we discuss the provision of seatbelts on service route buses, the same arguments are going to be raised—and those of us who have children or grandchildren who travel on school buses must answer them and continue our campaign. These arguments include convenience—that is, the regular stopping of service route buses; and enforcement—that is, who will police seatbelts on buses. I think we can answer those and continue the campaign. I do not think that bus drivers can carry the burden of ensuring that everybody on the bus has their seatbelt on, but children automatically put their seatbelts on now. Also, when children get on a bus to go to school, they do not get off until they get to the school. We could also look at the option of inspectors. We currently have inspectors who check bus tickets and things like that. So there are answers to these questions. The former minister, Bob Brown, has recently said that this is probably an opportune time for bus safety to move to the next stage, which is seatbelts in new service route buses which are designed to take the belts.

As in all changes which affect the operation of services of this kind, there should be full consultation with industry leaders, industry organisations and industry users to ensure that the changes are sensible, useful, coordinated, properly staged, properly administered, and effectively supervised and policed. I would like to conclude by reading from a message I received from Kim Bax, who is in the gallery. She said: