27 November 2013

Giulia Jones takes up cudgels against 'ol dick 'n balls

| johnboy
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playground

The Liberals’ Giulia Jones is making a push for Canberra’s playgrounds to be made more to her liking.

Playgrounds across Canberra are in need of a spruce up and they should offer more for mums and dads while providing a learning environment to boost fitness and health, Member for Molonglo Giulia Jones said today.

“Today in the Legislative Assembly I’ll be moving a motion to highlight the importance of playgrounds for families across Canberra’s suburbs and their role in promoting active lifestyles for children and adults alike,” Mrs Jones said.

“I’m calling on the government to fence a series of playgrounds across the ACT so parents and carers can take children to the park and have the peace of mind that they’re safe while playing.

Might need to push them rates higher still to pay for it, but a case can be made we happily concede.

And then she comes to this:

“Many playgrounds in Canberra are also in need of renewal and I’m also calling on the government to paint dilapidated equipment and remove graffiti from playgrounds, which often includes crude images.

Good luck with that we say.

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I don’t think it’s realistic to expect every playground to be fenced, but as a community the provision of some fenced playgrounds would be a kindness to parents who don’t get the perfectly normal child that some here think everyone is blessed with, or those parents with more than one toddler to manage.

Hopefully the naysayers will one day find themselves responsible for a child with autism. Such paragons of concentration would be well suited to the task of keeping the child safe.

sepi said :

It would be lovely to be able to take kids to the playground and actually chat to another adult and not panic that the kids are in the road or down the street.

So, cages then.
Do you also attach leashes when in public, give them pills on long car voyages, and attach flea collars when you visit the coast?

good fences make good neighbours – and slack parents and coddled children…

I am all for some fenced in playgrounds. NSW and VIC have them all over the place. It would be lovely to be able to take kids to the playground and actually chat to another adult and not panic that the kids are in the road or down the street. I would have taken my little kids to the park far more often if there was a fenced option.

Persephone said :

I think this is a good thing, particularly for play areas adjacent to streets with higher volumes of traffic. I am not saying here that a parent doesn’t need to be watching their kids, but it means that risks are lowered for an incident and allows for safer play.

I think it’s a good thing too. I have to laugh at all the comments here regarding the apparent lack of parenting skills. For what it’s worth, I’m trying to teach my 18 month old to come to Mummy for safety reasons (most of the time at the moment I get giggles or a couple of steps towards me before something shiny takes her interest, but we’ll get there). I am also trying to teach her that it’s ok for her to explore and look at things while Mummy stands nearby. Sometimes something catches her attention and she zips off, luckily not very fast at this stage, but she’ll get her running legs sooner rather than later. For now, it’s no problem, I only have one kid and I can play one on one with her, or let her have a bit of space to explore knowing that I can keep 100% of my attention on her. That wouldn’t be the case if I had twins or am taking a bunch of kids to the park and suddenly they all went in different directions.

It’s just a bit of a helping hand for parents, nothing more, nothing less. Some extra safety near roads. Having a nice, well maintained, place to go (for free and in walking distance) for kids, and parents, to run around and be kids. Our city shouldn’t just be roads and schools and hospitals, as important as these are. It should be a “nice place to live” too.

I think this is a good thing, particularly for play areas adjacent to streets with higher volumes of traffic. I am not saying here that a parent doesn’t need to be watching their kids, but it means that risks are lowered for an incident and allows for safer play.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

olo

nano

magiccar9 said :

cmdwedge said :

Why does Giulia get such a shellacking on this site whenever she does, you know, work? Should the Opposition ‘know their place’ and just be quiet until the next election? I’d rather an active and hard-working Oppo thanks.

While I agree with your point that she cops crap for doing work, I feel she should probably focus her efforts on topics that are of benefit to the masses eg, roads, healthcare, education etc. Instead she tries so hard to fix a playground or two that would only benefit a handful new parents…

Opposition or not, I think all the pollies need to take a long hard look and re-adjust their priorities according to what the community actually need.

Fair enough, but there are eight Opposition MLAs, and they all have their own portfolios.

Roads – Alistair Coe is Shadow Minister for Transport
Education – Steve Doszpot is Shadow Minister for Education and Training
Healthcare – Jeremy Hanson is Shadow Minister for Health

The state of playgrounds IS important to all of Canberra. It makes it a nicer place to live in general, and for young families in particular. The state of petrol stations is pretty dire and Weston Creek in particular is an eyesore because of the damn things. Giulia is right to go in to bat for residents of those affected suburbs.

mmmmm all the while the worthies are handing subsidies to an impoverished Forrest resident to help with his electricity bill. What was it again that the household was spending a lot of electricity money on? Is it a dialysis machine or something like that?

cmdwedge said :

Why does Giulia get such a shellacking on this site whenever she does, you know, work? Should the Opposition ‘know their place’ and just be quiet until the next election? I’d rather an active and hard-working Oppo thanks.

Or is it that those on this site think that Giulia only takes up trifling matters like petrol stations and playgrounds? Whilst it’s important work on grand adventures like marriage equality and saving the planet, the small stuff still needs attention.

You’re paying for her wages whether you voted for her or not. So she’s working bloody hard on stuff that doesn’t get a great fanfare like Corbell and marriage equality etc, and for that she should be applauded.

My own interactions with Giulia have shown her to be hardworking, determined and genuinely caring about Canberrans. Whether you like her side of politics or not.

Something to do with her shameless self-promotion on illegally parked cars?

IP

cmdwedge said :

Why does Giulia get such a shellacking on this site whenever she does, you know, work? Should the Opposition ‘know their place’ and just be quiet until the next election? I’d rather an active and hard-working Oppo thanks.

While I agree with your point that she cops crap for doing work, I feel she should probably focus her efforts on topics that are of benefit to the masses eg, roads, healthcare, education etc. Instead she tries so hard to fix a playground or two that would only benefit a handful new parents…

Opposition or not, I think all the pollies need to take a long hard look and re-adjust their priorities according to what the community actually need.

I guess the fences are to keep the refugees out, or perhaps she has a plan to turn back the bogans, Yes the little matters need attention too but please no more cotton wool attitudes to the precious children .

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd5:04 pm 27 Nov 13

olo

Why does Giulia get such a shellacking on this site whenever she does, you know, work? Should the Opposition ‘know their place’ and just be quiet until the next election? I’d rather an active and hard-working Oppo thanks.

Or is it that those on this site think that Giulia only takes up trifling matters like petrol stations and playgrounds? Whilst it’s important work on grand adventures like marriage equality and saving the planet, the small stuff still needs attention.

You’re paying for her wages whether you voted for her or not. So she’s working bloody hard on stuff that doesn’t get a great fanfare like Corbell and marriage equality etc, and for that she should be applauded.

My own interactions with Giulia have shown her to be hardworking, determined and genuinely caring about Canberrans. Whether you like her side of politics or not.

Holden Caulfield3:27 pm 27 Nov 13

Hang on a minute. Has she fixed up the terror of abandoned petrol station sites yet?

One thing at a time please Giulia!

I think that should be ol’ dick ‘n balls. Unless you meant lol dick ‘n balls, and removed the first ‘l’, resulting in this arcane ‘ol.

I enjoyed that far too much.

Fences? so parents don’t feel the need to watch their children while they are playing?

In Tuggeranong, the ole dick and balls is prolific in Calwell for some reason…….

HiddenDragon12:23 pm 27 Nov 13

Mothy said :

Remove Graffiti – TAMS are already quoted as spending half a million on it last financial year.

What is it with Libs and Graff? It all went so well for Steve Pratt.

Yes, unless wayward behaviour is nipped in the bud, they may end up as naughty, stencilling staffers:

http://the-riotact.com/stanhope-staffer-saved-from-the-gallows/170

What are the fences for? To keep the paedophile rabbits out?

Why are we fencing playgrounds for “piece of mind”
Walkaway parenting deserves government incentives now?

Any child wandering out of an unfenced playground is being irresponsibly supervised, any child getting into an unfenced playground _ought_ to be there.
Any adult getting into a fenced playground faces the trivial problem of _opening a gate_ and abducting a child from a playground (fenced or not) under appropriate supervision is a low-probability scenario.

Remove Graffiti – TAMS are already quoted as spending half a million on it last financial year.

What is it with Libs and Graff? It all went so well for Steve Pratt.

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