Never one to mope around: Adelaide street resident Jennifer Young putting her Gold Card to good use
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Petone resident Jennifer Young has been enjoying Super Gold Card benefits by ?gallivanting? around the town. Last week she took a bus to Days Bay and caught the Ferry to town, then walked down to the Railway Station and rode back to Petone to catch a local bus to her home in Adelaide Street. ?It didn?t cost me a cent. ?You can get just about everywhere; I can get a train up to see my daughter in Paraparaumu,? she says. The time restrictions around using the card are a hassle, and she says Auckland doesn?t impose the same time constraints. Super Gold Cards can be used all day on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. During the week they function from nine to three in the afternoon, and start again at six-thirty. ?It?s very handy locally. ?A flyer bus is quite expensive, it cost around $6 dollars to get into the centre of Wellington,? she says. As a single pension recipient she says not having to ?count the dollars? for transport is a big help. ?It helps stop people from moping around all day, they can take themselves out and mix with people,? says Mrs Young. Hutt City Grey Power chairperson and local regional councillor Sandra Greig says the government has spent around $3.4 million on the Super Gold Card in the Wellington region alone, and the National government was eying up cuts to the service. Representing 900 Hutt Valley Grey Power members she says, ?We are a political force against any changes the government choose to do to elderly?. ?There are more elderly people travelling all over the place than [the Government] imagined in their wildest dreams,? says Mrs Greig. After speaking to the Minister of Transport Stephen Joyce, Paul Quinn, and Lower Hutt MP Trevor Mallard, she says the perks of the Gold Card are here to stay. ?We said: ?don?t even try it?, and now they?ve said there not going to. ?Labour put it in and National has to run with it,? she says. The success of the card in motivating elderly people to stay active and travel around the city is an indicator of its success locally. Mrs Greig says the ?free day out? has had a positive impact on the health of elderly people. ?The gold card get?s them out of bed and into the community, the health improvements are striking. ?We have to keep it on board, it plays a very positive role,? she says.
