Page 4777 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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The committee states at page 7:
Some people felt that there was cause for concern about behaviour at the interchanges, especially that at Woden. However, a number of people argued, either in submissions or in evidence, that while there are groups of youths who "hang around" shopping centres and bus interchanges, on closer examination these groups can be found to be socialising or waiting for buses and generally their behaviour is not a problem. A submission argued that the current concern by certain members of society about the nature and intentions of these groups was based on prejudice and misunderstanding.
Interchanges are not simply a "place to hang out" for most people although naturally they serve as meeting places because they are central. Colleges, primary and high schools tend to finish at the same time causing a "peak hour" of young people at the interchanges. Because there are so many young people there is a lot of noise and activity -
that is certainly a common finding when you get a lot of young people together -
but this does not mean anyone is doing anything wrong.
Then we have the views of the ACT Workers with Youth Network. A young person is quoted as saying:
The police have moved us a few times, even when we were waiting for a bus. It meant we missed our bus. We would like ordinary unlicensed cafes or coffee bars where we could have a coffee and something to eat and sit and talk.
In other words, they want better design of the interchanges to give people something to do. On the central question of conduct at Woden - and I certainly have no reason to believe that conduct at Woden, 18 months after this committee reported, is any different from what it was at the time the committee closely examined it - the committee said at page 8:
In evidence to the Committee, however, the AFP reported that the Woden interchange is currently generating less of a public behaviour problem than it did because of measures taken by the police. They did comment that the problem appeared to have moved. Other problems of public behaviour were now occurring at Weston, where some licensed premises remain open until 8 or 9 am and become the focus of people who have already been drinking at other premises which closed at 4 am.
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