Physical Activity

While technological advances in the western world have resulted in many improvements to the Western Australian standard of living, an over-reliance on some technology has had a negative impact. Cities that rely on motor vehicles as the primary transport mode result in a significant decrease in walking and cycling. Computers and television tend to draw children away from outdoor recreation and sport. These trends have major effects on human health, our sense of community and the state of the environment. 

Goals

The Greens (WA) want:

• the Department for Planning and Infrastructure and the WA Planning Commission to reject new housing subdivisions unless they are designed to encourage walking and cycling to the nearest public transport nodes
• equal access to opportunities for physical activity for all people, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender or physical and mental ability.  

Initiatives

The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that:

• ensure that schools are located to enable students to walk and ride to school and other initiatives such as Walking School Buses¹
• support programs that encourage girls to continue sporting and other physical recreational pursuits beyond early secondary schooling
• push for increased funding for sports facilities and community halls in lower socio-economic suburbs, rural areas and remote townships
• support moves to complete the Perth Bicycle Network
• support an extension of Transperth's Travelsmart Program² to all Perth metropolitan areas (see Greens (WA) Transport policy)
• discourage the corporate sponsorship of physical activities and sports by companies whose aims and/or products are inconsistent with the goals of improved community and environmental health, or who are otherwise unethical
• encourage relevant peak bodies such as the WA Sports Federation to have designated board positions for women, older people and people with disabilities
• encourage monitoring strategies for equal opportunity and anti-discrimination principles to be applied to the administration of all sporting organisations. 

Background Information
There is growing evidence that, in the Western world at least, people are becoming less and less physically active and that obesity is increasing. This is true in Western Australia, due to various factors including:

• increasing motor vehicle traffic, which reduces the use of public areas around our homes (including roads) for socialisation and recreation;
• increasing urban sprawl, which increases reliance on motor vehicles (a physically inactive form of transportation);
• the increasing prevalence (especially for young people) of inactive recreation such as television, video games and the internet;
• smaller family groups and increasing numbers of single parents, which may result in less child to child and parent to child physical recreation;
• pressure on schools to reduce the emphasis on physical activity and sport;
• heightened concerns about safety in public spaces and on public transport; and
• an ageing population.

This trend has a number of disturbing impacts, including:

• an increasing prevalence of heart and lung diseases, and diabetes;
• higher air and noise pollution;
• more road injuries and fatalities;
• a higher financial burden of transport for residents of the outer Perth suburbs; and
• greater fear and alienation felt by groups such as young people, older people, women and people with disabilities.

The Heart Foundation of Australia strongly advocates that people of all ages should walk for at least 30 minutes each day to reduce the risk of heart diseases. People are concerned about their personal safety on streets but the way to make streets safe is to use them and for local government and transport authorities to give higher priority to walking, cycling, scooters and skateboards in urban areas. Footpaths should be wider and run along both sides of streets and subdivisions should be designed for maximum accessibility on foot.

Glossary
1. Walking School Bus – a supervised walking group of students who are escorted to school by parent volunteers, who pick them up along the route in the morning and return them in the afternoon. http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/travelsmart/14915.asp
2. Travelsmart - a proven direct-marketing model which encourages people to substitute walking or cycling for some of their weekly car journeys