Page 3707 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 21 November 2006
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The other way that a lot of older people move, of course, is simply to walk, and in that regard walking can become more and more dangerous in the ACT. This government’s lack of dedication to the maintenance of assets, particularly footpaths, public places, shared paths and cycle paths, makes it far more dangerous for older people to be out on their own. They often have fragile bones and should they fall they injure themselves more readily, which puts a burden on themselves and their families but also on the health system. Older people rely on community infrastructure, particularly when they surrender their licences or feel less safe using their cars and have to rely on public transport. And let us face it: to get to the bus stop they have got to walk along a footpath. If the footpaths, particularly in the areas where they live, are unsound—and often in new areas there are no footpaths—it places them at risk. Unless we maintain the community infrastructure, we as a society, and the Stanhope government, are letting older people in Canberra down. It is very important that we look at the maintenance of assets because what we are doing is putting older people at risk.
Then there is the community’s responsibility to ensure access to the footpaths. A lot of us are good, keen gardeners in the ACT, but many gardens now encroach on footpaths. Particularly in the older areas, the very hedges that are the pride and joy of some people actually make it impossible for older people to move past those homes; they encroach onto the footpath or branches hang down and make it dangerous for older people, who are often visually impaired, to travel safely. If they have got to move off the footpath on to the road or people’s gardens they run the increased risk of falling over, and every time they fall they have an increased risk of injuring themselves.
When I was the minister for urban services a delightful old gentleman in Lyons almost adopted me. Joe was his name. He had given up his licence, I think, at about the age of 82 and between 82 and when he died at the age of 86 he had a motorised scooter—I am sure you have seen them—that his family had bought him. I think Joe traversed, as a personal crusade, every path, road, sidewalk and public space in Curtin and Lyons. He would ring my office once or twice a week and say, “You know that house in Davenport Street, Lyons; its branch is now overhanging the footpath again and I am old and I can’t go past or I’ll scratch my head.” We would send the boys out and the kids from Koomarri and whoever had the contract at the time to clean up that mess. He would ring back the next day and say, “Well, I got a little bit further today because you cleaned up that problem; but the footpath is cracked. I can’t walk, I can’t take my trolley, I can’t drive my scooter and there is no ramp.”
It was really quite educational to watch this old guy just slowly filter throughout all of Lyons. He rediscovered his own suburb; because he could not drive anywhere, everything had to be in range. It was a scooter trip to the seniors club at Woden. It was a scooter trip to the bank at Woden. It was a scooter trip to Curtin to do his shopping. I think there is a Coles supermarket there, and he would go there. But when he found places that he could not traverse he would ring.
A lack of maintenance of community infrastructure really does cause a lot of older people grief. If we want to keep them active and keep them walking—and they do; they want to be part of the community—we have got to make sure that the infrastructure is there for them to do it safely. Otherwise, unfortunately, minister, they are going to end up in Canberra Hospital. And we all know that falls and hip, knee and shoulder
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