Moorabbin Traffic School

In January 2007 bookings for the Moorabbin Traffic School were suspended.  In March the school closed and the police officer who had run the school for the past 20 years was transferred.

Not only do such traffic schools as the one in Moorabbin provide base knowledge, road sense and understanding of traffic that is so important for young people but they are also a very important way by which young people understand the importance of the police. In many cases they develop a relationship with police officers that enables them to view the police favourably, so there are a number of important aspects to the activities of these traffic schools.

The closure was scheduled despite the fact that the school had helped countless numbers of children understand basic road rules and was a link between children and the police.

On 4^th May 2007 David Davis wrote a letter to the Premier asking that the decision to close the school be reversed.

The Premier’s reply to the traffic school letter only referred David to another bureaucratic government department.

This important issue was the subject of a television report on 23^rd May. Click here to download a copy of the TV report.

On 5 June a Notice of Motion to  the Legislative Council that the House expresses its concern at the Government’s closure of the Moorabbin Children’s Traffic School was placed on the Notice Paper.

A petition to the Legislative Council was distributed.  Click here to view a copy of the petition.

The petition with 354 signatures was laid on the table in the Legislative Council on 6 June 2007.  Another petition with 34 signatures was laid on the table in the Legislative Council on 20 June 2007, another with 427 signatures on 17 July 2007 and another with 115 signatures on 19 September 2007.

David Davis raised the issue in the Legislative Council on 19 April 2007, 23 May 2007, 7 June 2007, 17 July 2007 and on 20 September 2007.

The City of Glen Eira decided that, as the school was on public land, it would make access to the site available to a private operator on a community lease-type arrangement for a sufficient period to enable a group called Camelot Driving School to run the children’s traffic school, which it has some history in doing.

Although it is not the ideal solution, David Davis congratulated the council and welcomed the involvement of Camelot in the project.  He is on record as saying that he believes there should have been police and state government involvement. The fact that the council, the community and a private sector operator have come together to find a solution when the Bracks and Brumby governments were not prepared to find a solution is an indictment of this government.