Page 1864 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 2 May 2012
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develop a strategic parking framework, but if it is anything like frameworks in education we can expect a failure to deliver. We need more car parking of all types, not only disability car park spaces. We need a better approach to accessible transport. We need a better way of ensuring that the car spaces that are there for disability are used by people with disability.
There seems to be a great demand in our community to ensure that justice is served by having people with disability use disability car park spaces. We need to know that every effort is being made to police the existing car spaces to ensure that they are being used correctly. This motion does not address those four issues and, on that basis, the opposition will not be supporting the motion as it stands.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Community Services, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Women and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (5.08): I rise in support of the amendments moved by the Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher; I think they stand. I understand the intent and the thinking behind the motion from Ms Le Couteur. As minister for disability—and it is the same for Steve Doszpot—a number of people make contact with my office about parking and a range of access matters. I think one of the most predominant ones is around the improper use of disability parking.
That is probably something that we as a society should have a broader conversation about. You can police it—you can increase surveillance by TAMS workers in terms of infringement—but it is also a conversation that we as a community ought to have, in many ways, to self-regulate and self-police when we see people clearly improperly using a parking area that has been set aside for people with a disability.
It is worth looking, again, as a community, at various aspects of how we support and improve access for people with a disability. Whilst the intention and the thinking behind Ms Le Couteur’s aim of increasing the percentage is a true and a proper thing to think about, I am not quite sure if that of itself, without other considerations, would indeed provide that broad range of improved access for those with a disability. That is why we have put our amendments on the table. I commend them to the chamber.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (5.10): I commend Ms Le Couteur for her motion and for highlighting the needs of people with disability and bringing this important issue to the Assembly. One of the major issues for people with a disability and also older people is social inclusion and access to services. Access to health and other services, employment opportunities and social connections are crucial, particularly for people with disability. If a person with limited mobility or their carer is using a car for transport, not being able to access disability parking due to a lack of spaces can mean not being able to attend an event or a service or having to walk or use a wheelchair over a long distance, which can be physically straining. We also know the population, including people with disabilities, is ageing and the changing needs of all people must be incorporated into the built form. It is also important that people with disabilities are able to obtain and maintain their independence, and travel is one of the most important factors in this.
The issue of disability parking also raises human rights issues. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the Australian
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