Page 848 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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I think it would be fair to say that there is universal agreement in this chamber that playgrounds are generally a good thing and that we would like to see more of them, and in better condition, in the ACT. I do not think that is a matter of disputation at all amongst those in this Assembly. Those are the words that I said, and I would say they would be a fair interpretation of my fellow Murrumbidgee MLAs’ statements. We all think playgrounds help kids. And it is older people as well; we should not totally forget older people.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MS LE COUTEUR: Mr Hanson, please stop interjecting. I would point out also that the ACT government maintains 507 playgrounds across Canberra. I believe that does not include the playgrounds maintained by the Department of Education, which I believe are in the order of another 200. This gets to the nub of the issue. We have a lot of playgrounds. We have to work out how to prioritise what we are going to do.
I sincerely congratulate the community of Waramanga for the efforts they have put into advancing the proposition that there should be a better playground at Waramanga shops. I think there is fairly universal agreement that this has been great work they have done, and it is something which I have been very pleased to lend my voice to. I have been talking about this with Minister Fitzharris, as the minister for this, amongst many other things. She has been the relevant minister since last year. I think we are all aware that this is an issue and it would be a positive thing to have happen. That really is not the question. Clearly, Waramanga shops do not actually have a playground next to them.
I noted Mr Hanson’s comments, which I might otherwise have made, about a number of issues on playground provision. One of them is that when our suburbs were planned, our schools were not fenced. The playgrounds in schools were open to the community. This is one of the real issues with playground provision in older suburbs. I do not know what the best solution to that is. It is an issue that deserves consideration, and not just as part of this motion. But as Mr Hanson noted, this is an issue, especially for Waramanga. If you stand at the site that is being proposed, you can see two playgrounds which are currently enclosed in fencing.
Another issue which Mr Hanson talked about, and I agree it is an issue, is whether or not we drive to playgrounds. Our older suburbs were laid out with the concept that we would not drive to playgrounds. They were laid out with the concept that mums would push the pram and take the baby, the toddler or whatever; we would walk to playgrounds. So the older suburbs all have a fairly large number of less exciting playgrounds, to put it that way. Waramanga is one of those. Those playgrounds are not in particularly good condition. We are all in agreement with that.
Mrs Jones interjecting—
MS LE COUTEUR: Yes, it is a real issue. We have changed, it seems, how we want to use our playgrounds. There seems to be much more support for the concept that people would like to drive to fewer but better playgrounds.
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