Page 3681 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 9 December 1992
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to be treated in the same way as shopping centres for that purpose. I do not think any member of this Assembly would be unaware of the many problems which have flowed from the use of skateboards, in particular, and other things, to a lesser extent in - - -
Mr Connolly: We saw someone on the TV last night falling off and creating a hazard to the community.
MR HUMPHRIES: That sort of thing must be put an end to. We will have to deal with that problem. I take that as an indication of support from the Government for this measure. I do not think any of us would not have received some complaints in the last couple of years from people. I have had many such complaints, particularly from elderly people but also from traders, not the least of which have come from Garema Place. The Council on the Ageing has expressed the concerns of many elderly people as well.
Quite frankly, it is incompatible to have people using skateboards in shopping centres where they pose a hazard to others who are going about their business of shopping or using the facilities in those places. Collisions, regrettably, have occurred. I do not think any figures are kept on this, but a great many people have told me about being witnesses to such collisions. I spoke yesterday with a pharmacist in Garema Place who says that he has treated a large number of people, both elderly people and young people, even skateboarders themselves, for injuries resulting from collisions and accidents with skateboards.
There is also the question of damage to property, both public property and private property. If members care to walk around the chess pit in Garema Place they will see that the seats there, which I am told were repainted only in the last three or four months, are severely damaged. Skateboarders apparently find it fun to ride skateboards along the seats, with the result that the woodwork is damaged. There is even damage to the edges of concrete structures in the area of the chess pit. As for private damage, there are cases of people colliding with shopfronts, even cases of skateboards going through windows. That kind of damage is not measured, I suspect, but is certainly of a considerable order when it is all added up.
The worst thing about this matter is not so much the actual damage but the perception of harm and damage that flows from people using skateboards in these circumstances.
Mr Berry: Civic, unsafe at any time, with skateboarders flying through windows.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry interjects about safety. It is a continuum between minor questions of public safety and major ones, and it all contributes to an environment in which people, citizens of the Territory, feel unhappy and unsafe when moving around public places.
Obviously, it is nothing like as serious as someone being assaulted and robbed, or bashed up in Garema Place after 11 o'clock at night, either without the presence of the Attorney-General or with it; but there is the very real question of elderly people, moving around doing their business, shopping, or going to a restaurant or something like that, in a public place, finding themselves fearful because of the
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