Kelly Vincent – 5AA interview on introducing demerit points for illegal parking in accessible car parks
06/12/2015
On the 6th December 2015, Kelly Vincent was interviewed on 5AA to discuss Dignity for Disability’s proposal to introduce a demerit points penalty for people who illegally park in accessible parking spaces. Kelly Vincent also discussed some of the issues she raised at the Disability Pride Parade last week. Here is the transcript from the interview.
Andrew Reimer: Hello Kelly. Now what was the story about demerit points and disabled parking spots?
Kelly Vincent: This is a proposal that Dignity for Disability has put forward and we have in fact introduced legislation to the Parliament to introduce demerit points for people who park in disability access parking spaces without a permit. This is an issue that my office heard a lot of complaints about and something that did affect people’s ability to access community safely and without worry in a big way. So we thought it was time to put forward a proposal to send a strong message to the community doing this using these parking spaces without a permit that this won’t be tolerated.
Andrew Reimer: I’m just wondering though, I mean the fine for parking in a disabled spot, what is it now?
Kelly Vincent: Around $349 on average I think so it’s already pretty high but unfortunately it’s clearly not sending a strong enough message and particularly in the city areas we still see a lot of misuse of these parks without a permit. In fact I think I’m right in saying that the Adelaide City Council issued over 1,000 expiation notices to do with parking and access spaces without a permit last year alone so it’s a big problem and we want to show that this won’t be tolerated. Because I think it’s important to remember Andrew that disability parking spots are not just about convenience, they’re about safety as well. If I have to park in a standard spot where I might be further away from where I’m going then I have to walk across a crowded car park, it might be dark, it could be less visible because I’m sitting down, so there are big safety concerns as well.
Andrew Reimer: I do appreciate that. On a personal note, I find it incredulous that people are so selfish out there that they would park in a spot which is designated for a person with a disability. Makes me shudder. Number two, the fact that they would get fined in excess of $300, to me that’s a lot of money and then I would have thought that was in itself a reason not to do it and a disincentive but then I just wonder whether the demerit point was just maybe going a little bit too far that’s all.
Kelly Vincent: Well clearly not unfortunately. We still have far too many people committing this selfish act of parking in a parking space without a permit but I think you’re really going to another issue that needs to be addressed there which is the policing of the misuse of these parks, because not only are people continuing to do it, but they clearly are not being caught enough. So as well as harsher penalties we’d also like to see increased policing of this actually happening. But not only that, we’d actually also like to see people with disabilities employed by local councils to do that policing and it could be people whose disabilities are visible and some people who may not be very visible, because that’s another important thing to remember. As well as that, 90% of people with disabilities have no particular visible manifestations. So we’d like to see more policing of this as a part of the solution as well so that more people actually get caught out to send that message. But I think at the end of the day if you think the penalty is too harsh just don’t do it.
Andrew Reimer: No doubt, but when it comes to the policing of who is parking and who isn’t in disabled spots I can tell you from bitter experience I spent a few months as a parking inspector down at Holdfast Bay and I can tell you the amount of abuse you get in such a role from people who are doing the wrong thing, you’d need to be pretty thick-skinned.
Kelly Vincent: You do, in a way it occurs to me that maybe people with disabilities are the best people to be doing that job because we are other people that can tell people exactly what they’re doing to us when they take these parking spaces away from us. They could be denying somebody’s ability to access that venue, maybe even for the entire day. And so I think we need to see those real life stories out there about why these parks matter and send that message to people that not only do they get caught out with increased policing but maybe if we had people with disabilities employed to do this you would learn more of a lesson about exactly why these parks matter and need to be kept free for people who have a permit.
Andrew Reimer: Yeah. Now when it comes to other issues affecting people with disabilities out there, we’ve had International Day for People with Disabilities.
Kelly Vincent: This is marked every day on the 3rd of December, unfortunately it’s not always easy to put everything into that one day, so Dignity for Disability with a couple of other organisations – Barriers to Justice and Victim Support Service included – put on Australia’s first disability pride march. I guess the aim of this pride parade was two-fold: one, to show our strength and visibility as a community and also to show the variety of disabilities that are out there and the variety of people with disabilities out there because unfortunately the messages that we get from the media and the news for example tends to be very stereotypical. We tend to go straight to the image of someone in a wheelchair for example when there are many out there that don’t fit that description but still have a disability or condition. We wanted to show that strength and visibility and pride in our experiences and our lives but also to rally for change in some of the areas that still are out there.
We had a rally at the end of the march out the front of Parliament House with a variety of different speakers, myself included. I spoke about many issues; the rate of abuse and neglect that people with disability face, and the need for more education and action around that; the need for more universal design of public buildings but also housing as well, particularly public housing, to be built to vehicle accessible throughout their lifetime, to not only meeting the code which is very minimal but actually talking about how can we make this space useable throughout the lifetime of this venue particularly as the population ages. That’s why we’re very disappointed within Dignity for Disability that the Government won’t support our amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Legislation that the Parliament’s debating at the moment to implement measures and standards around universal design. I also talked about the fact that people with disabilities can be indefinitely detained in prison, even when found not guilty of a crime, particularly by way of mental illness or mental incompetence, even if they have been found not guilty of a crime, they can still be held in prison because there’s no appropriate supported accommodation for them in the community. We’ve come a long way, the community, but we have a long way to go.
Andrew Reimer: It sounds quite draconian, when you take what you’re saying into consideration in this day and age that that’s still going on. I really feel for people who are in that sort of situation and also the families who have to witness that as well. It’s a terrible injustice.
Kelly Vincent: Absolutely, it’s really a black mark in South Australia’s history of the state. Dignity for Disability has been very proud to make a lot of changes in the justice system around the needs of people with disabilities, particularly putting in place legislation for measures such as allowing a person who needs assistance to communicate in court to be allowed to do that, because up until now what’s happened is that people who might need to communicate in a way other than speaking have been deemed unreliable witnesses in a court so even if they want to tell the story of alleged abuse that they’ve experienced, because they’re not able to tell that story in a court without support, they’re deemed unreliable witnesses and therefore the trial doesn’t even go ahead let alone a conviction being placed. We’re very hopeful that these new measures will see more of these cases actually going to court and hopefully more convictions so that people who have perpetrated these horrific offences and these crimes of abusing people with disabilities won’t get away with it because let’s face it, up until now if you are going to abuse someone you might as well abuse someone who has less avenues to pursue justice. We think it will go a long way to plug that gap but we still have a long way to go.
Caller Father Joan: I’ve got family with a disability, I’ve got a disability myself. I had a nephew who was at St Ann’s and we all know what happened there, and has been beaten up several times walking home because they’re vulnerable, people just pick on them. It makes me absolutely mad too when people park in disabled car parks. I know some people who do it because they are the carer for maybe an ageing mother or grandmother, it’s the only car that the person goes in, so they keep the sticker in their car and then they can park in the disabled parks with a sticker and get away with it. If it’s not illegal it’s definitely immoral.
Kelly Vincent: It’s a big problem and one of the solutions that has been put to us is maybe having a photograph of the permit holder with the person whose name the permit is, on the permit. A problem with that though that we have to consider is that that would raise the cost of printing the permits. That cost would be passed down to people wanting to have a permit. If we’re to consider how that would affect people and whether people would still be happy for that to go ahead. But I’m happy to hear any feedback on that.
Caller Father Joan: The rest of the community could cover that cost, there’s not that many people if we don’t look after the more vulnerable people in society, what kind of society are we? The other thing that really gripes me, you go to some food halls the counter is up to my shoulder and there’s no break where the cashier is. If I was in a wheelchair how could I order anything don’t we have to be a little bit accessible?
Kelly Vincent: You’re really hitting a big issue on the head there, which is often people don’t assume that people with disabilities are actually able to be out in the community and spend money at businesses and therefore they don’t make their businesses accessible, or they assume that we’ll always have someone with us to just take care of that for us. If you want my money you’ve got to work a bit harder.
Andrew Reimer: Thank you.
Kelly Vincent: Thanks, take care.
