opinion Homes to last a lifetime Catherine Carter property
WHEN life throws something new at us – a baby, an injury, a disability, even old age – often our homes can’t keep up. While all new housing must meet targets for energy efficiency, there are no standards for liveability or universal design. However the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines, developed as part of a national partnership among industry groups, the community and governments, are about to change that. The guidelines give three voluntary performance levels – silver, gold and platinum – and introduce core design elements to make a home safer and easier to live in. At the silver level, the principles are commonsense – at least one level entry (step-free) into the house, an easy-to-access toilet on the ground floor and reinforced walls in the bathroom (for installation of grab rails, if needed) just to name a few. Put simply, the design should allow for safe entry and easy navigation, and cost-effective adaptation so that the house can respond to the changing needs of its occupants. International studies show it is 22 times more efficient to design a home for change than to retrofit later. And with the family home accounting for 62 per cent of all falls and slip-based injuries (costing around $1.8 billion in public health expenses), it makes sense to build a home that will be easier and safer to live in. The ACT Government has already set a target for 2015, when 50 per cent of all new detached housing has to meet universal design guidelines (this will rise to 100 per cent by 2020). Let’s see the ACT lead the charge to be first to adopt the new guidelines – ensuring that Canberrans have access to new homes that last a lifetime.
Our poor relations IT’S not easy for Canberrans being surrounded by NSW. It’s a bit like a nice, well-educated family displaced by some climate-change disaster, waking up to find itself surrounded by the poor relations… except in our case there’s no prospect of reprieve, ever. We’re stuck here. And getting out – even to visit our beach house or friends on the outside – is a real ordeal. This really struck home last weekend when we headed out to Sydney on the worst rail line in Australia. It’s so bad that a journey that takes a bit over three hours by car requires a full four and a half by train. That is outrageous. The driver is never able to travel at full speed; he stops at the most ridiculous places – Tarago, for instance, where no one has boarded or alighted since 1963 – and when he does put the foot down the carriage springs go berserk. Honestly, they sound like the screaming of a sow giving birth to a litter of giant piglets. And when you complain – which I did – the conductor says: ‘We report that every day, sir.” I mean, how hard is it to buy a can of WD40 and squirt the under-carriage? Or take the road to the coast – the Kings Highway. How long has it been since you made that journey without being pulled up at least three times by some bloke with a stop/slow sign while NSW council workers make piddling little repairs and add yet another overtaking lane? When will it end?
Robert Macklin the gadfly
Ever? Yet this unease of access doesn’t stop them – the NSW denizens – from coming in their hundreds to use our facilities – hospitals, schools, etcetera – at bargain-basement prices. Our problem could hardly be better illustrated than by two recent events – the ICAC hearings into corruption in the NSW Labor Government; and a truly outrageous decision by its Liberal successor. It seems that for the last 10 years at least, the Labor right wingers have been engaged in a massive plundering of the State’s finances. I wish I could say this comes as a surprise, but really it’s just NSW doing what it’s always done. However, I do admit to a frisson of wonderment at the decision by Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell to give the green light to a housing development on the Canberra airport flight path. This is the same Barry O’Farrell who wants Canberra to be Sydney’s second airport. I wish I could think of a solution to our dilemma. Perhaps as we approach our centenary we could formulate a plan to join up with our Jervis Bay enclave. That at least would give us independent access to the civilised world without having to pass through the NSW netherland. Meantime, spare a thought for poor Katy Gallagher and her ministers having to deal with their State equivalents – for them, it seems, it’s either cupidity or stupidity, take your pick. robert@robertmacklin.com
More information on the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines at livablehousingaustralia.org.au Catherine Carter is ACT executive director of the Property Council of Australia.
CityNews November 22-28 15