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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1179 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

We were contacted by older people, the Council on the Ageing, and other groups. We were contacted by young people. We were contacted by adult in-line skaters. We were contacted by tradespeople. We were contacted by city residents. We were also contacted by youth advocates and youth workers. We saw that there were two quite distinct cultural groups involved in the use of these small-wheeled vehicles. There were skateboarders, who were predominantly a younger group, and there were in-line skaters, who were either children or adults, and they were a quite different group.

A number of public servants who spoke to the committee were in-line skaters. They felt quite concerned because they felt the perceived behaviour of some skateboarders was going to have a quite serious impact on their ability to use their in-line skates, which they felt on the whole were very responsibly used. I was interested to see the Australia Council report which stated:

Skateboarding is an integral part of popular culture of contemporary youth; it is their non-traditional form of creative expression ... the reason for the popularity of skating is its high risk value and creative skill challenge which empowers skaters to create meaning in their local urban landscape ... identification with and participation in the activity (skateboarding) provides a basis for identity beyond a particular group or physical location.

What we saw quite clearly was that the skateboarders were using their skateboards for that recreational excitement and so on, but they also were using them for transport, as were the in-line skaters. Both groups, in fact, used their small-wheeled vehicles for transport and recreation. Both groups, of course, were strong in defending their use of these small-wheeled vehicles because it is a very healthy activity. It increases fitness. It is good, physically and psychologically, to be involved in some kind of recreational activity that is so physical. This group of young people using skateboards is quite different from some of the other young people in Garema Place, for example, who are substance abusers. There is a quite distinct cultural difference between the two groups.

The committee was concerned about how many of the older people, particularly, in our community were concerned about the use of skateboards in public places. There was a definite perception that skateboarders were quite threatening, although that was not supported by incidents. The police explained that there were only five incidents reported. They were not incidents of injury; they were just incidents where people were asked to move on and so on. There were some incidents of self-injury through falling off a skateboard that were reported to hospitals. There was a very definite perception from older people that they were actually threatening; that the use of skateboards was something they were not happy with in public places.

I will quickly go through the recommendations of the committee. We recommended against legislation. I think I need to go into a little bit of detail about why, because I do not think it has been understood. There have been some unfortunate things in the media about the committee's report which, I think, are the basis of not understanding why we

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