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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 677 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

The answer was such that I believe it was not even considered. I was told that detailed "surveys" of the need for footpaths were undertaken when the suburb was first planned (over 30 years ago) and that there was no need then, and was no need now. This is despite the proposed redevelopment of Jamison, the school in Cook and Cook shops.

My own situation is this: I do not have a car, I have two small children-a three-year-old and a four-month-old baby. I am reliant on walking everywhere, usually to Jamison to shop or to catch a bus.

Due to the poor state of the footpaths and no clear area also the road where it is possible to push a pram, I have to walk along the road pushing the pram with one hand, and hanging onto my three-year-old with the other. The road is dangerous, people already exceed the 60 kilometre limit so I have no real expectation that the 50 kilometre limit will make any difference. I am frightened for my children. I have taught my eldest child not to go on the road, so to have to do so in order to get anywhere is confusing to him.

My pram has been ruined by constantly being caught in the ruts along the access path to Jamison, which is dangerous as well as uncomfortable for my youngest child. I believe, that as a tax-paying person in the ACT, my children and I deserve better. It angers me that money is spent on the "high end" of town, while we are virtually ignored. I sincerely hope that you are able to address these problems and help make this area safer for my children.

I will not mention the constituent's name and I will pass that on to the minister's office, but I think this email is a sign of frustration from this particular constituent that needs to be addressed by the minister's office. It looks as though she has had the brush-off in relation to this matter, and I would hope that she, and her family, get better treatment once the minister is aware of her name, which I have brought to his attention.

I wish to raise one other matter, Mr Speaker, though I do not wish to delay the Assembly and those members who have worked too long this evening. A little while ago-I think it was in last week's sitting-I raised the issue of a constituent who had some difficulty with a plaster cast and a more modern version of a cast on her arm. This constituent had difficulties with her arm and went to accident and emergency and had a high-tech cast removed with the usual saws and so on. The trouble is that the plaster cast that replaced it was the normal plaster model, which in turn had to be replaced with the high-tech Goretex model.

The difficulty was that the teaching hospital was not in a position to replace it with a high-tech model. She had to be sent to a private clinic to have the high-tech cast fitted. I find it extraordinary that we have a teaching hospital, and a clinical medical school and so on, and we are not able to provide what are, by today's standards, basic high-tech lightweight casts for broken limbs, or limbs that need attention. I draw that matter to the attention of the minister for health again, and I hope that I do not have to take this further before I get some sort of response.

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