Page 4784 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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You cannot do that because it is an infringement of somebody's civil rights". The argument has to be reversed. The civil rights that ought to be on people's minds are those of the elderly and others who are afraid to use our public facilities because these drunken louts - let us put the words on the table - seem to think they have a right to invade these public places, to terrorise people, to turn public places into places where nobody feels they can safely go. That is not acceptable in this community.
Mr Berry: That is rubbish.
MR KAINE: It is not rubbish.
Mr Berry: You spend thousands of dollars on a committee report and then you reckon it is rubbish.
MR KAINE: Now we are hiding behind a committee report that decided that there was not a problem. There is a problem. You talk to the elderly people who have no option but to use our public transport system. Ask them what they think about the interchange at Woden. Ask them what they think about the interchange at Civic. You will find that your assertion that there is no problem does not stand up.
You are all right; you travel around in your car and you never go near a bus interchange. Nor, in Mr Berry's case, I submit, does he ever go near the Private Bin or any of the other drinking places in town, because he does not drink, and that is fine. You are entitled to that sort of lifestyle, but to draw on your personal experience of life and say "Because I do not see it, there is no problem" is not acceptable.
There is a problem. It has to be addressed, and it has to be addressed in more ways than just the behaviour of people within 50 yards or 200 yards or metres, or however you are going to describe it, of a public bus interchange point or something else. The problem is much wider than that, but if we do not start somewhere we will never address the problem. We have to begin to attack the problem of alcoholism and overdrinking, overconsumption, and the effect that has on our society. It reflects in the consequences for our health delivery system and for our policing services. Everywhere you look there is an influence from the overconsumption of alcohol. For that reason alone, I support Mr Stefaniak.
I do not hang around bus interchanges either; I do not find it necessary to do so. But I do know that people have come to me and said that they have felt threatened. When they have had to travel on a bus and go through a bus terminal they have felt personally threatened by the situation there. That is not acceptable. We have to start doing something about it, and I think the case is made.
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