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Speaker 1: Tomorrow. This Friday is indeed National Walk Safely to School Day,

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Speaker 1: and primary school students in the Northern Territory are being

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Speaker 1: encouraged to get involved. The initiative aims to highlight the

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Speaker 1: benefits of physical activity as well as the impacts on

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Speaker 1: academic performance and well being. Now joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line to tell us a little bit more is the

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Speaker 1: Pedestrian Council of Australia's CEO, Harold Scrubby. Good morning to you, Harold.

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Speaker 2: Good akat And my name is Scrooby.

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Speaker 1: But that's okay, sorry, mate, Scrooby, I reckon I might

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Speaker 1: have gotten that role last year as well.

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Speaker 2: But my third name is Wolf. Is that one right.

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Speaker 1: There?

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Speaker 2: You go?

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Speaker 1: Well, Harold, lovely to have you on the show, mate.

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Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about Walk Safely to

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Speaker 1: School Day.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is our twenty fifth year. We're pretty proud

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Speaker 2: of it. It's got two major objectives, better health and

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Speaker 2: better road safety. So we try to get kids to

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Speaker 2: realize our parents more importantly the benefits of walking with

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Speaker 2: children and to get out of this car dependency that

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Speaker 2: we've developed over the last twenty to thirty years. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's terrible standing outside of school and watching children being

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Speaker 2: chape driven up to the front gate and on their

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Speaker 2: phones and not even looking out the windows. You know,

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Speaker 2: and there's no physical activity before school. We've got overwhelming

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Speaker 2: evidence to show that if kids are physically active before school,

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Speaker 2: they'll they'll perform much better. So that's the number one objective.

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Speaker 1: Well, they switched all right. You know, your brain gets

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Speaker 1: going if you get up and you get going early,

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Speaker 1: even for adults, your brain gets going. And you switched

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Speaker 1: right on.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. Now you think about it, it's so simple. I

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Speaker 2: know a lot of parents would say we've got to

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Speaker 2: drive our kids. Fine, but don't drive them up to

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Speaker 2: the school gate. What about leaving the car a kilometer

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Speaker 2: from the school or even half a kilometer. Get out,

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Speaker 2: have a walk with your children. Teach them how to

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Speaker 2: cross roads. Teach them that on two their ten they

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Speaker 2: must always hold an adult's hand when they cross the road.

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Speaker 2: Teach them that you know, never trust a green light.

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Speaker 2: Never trust a green light. A green light's an indication

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Speaker 2: that you can cross, but it's always stop, look, listen, think.

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Speaker 2: Because so many people run red lights, you can never

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Speaker 2: be sure that it's safe. Then you keep walking to school.

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Speaker 2: You're not going to cause a dangerous traffic jam at

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Speaker 2: the school. You're not going to be polluting with the

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Speaker 2: particulates that come from cars that you float around the

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Speaker 2: school and give kids respiratory problems and then you have

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Speaker 2: a bit of a walk back to the car yourself.

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Speaker 2: So it ticks every box, Katie, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: It certainly does, Harold. Tell me what's planned across the

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Speaker 1: nation tomorrow, what's planned here in the NTA.

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Speaker 2: Look, we've sent kids to every school in Australia. They

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Speaker 2: include tattoos, they include posters and information kids. Most importantly,

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Speaker 2: we're asking all the kids to wear their tattoos tomorrow

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Speaker 2: celebrate the event. A lot of schools putting on hosts

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Speaker 2: a healthy breakfast, which is fantastic. It's just celebrating walking

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Speaker 2: and health and road safety.

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Speaker 1: It's a nice thing to do though as well, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: I actually quite enjoy going for a walk with the kids.

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Speaker 1: And I mean in our family we run everywhere, We

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Speaker 1: do lots of running. But it is really nice, you know,

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Speaker 1: to spend that time with the kids too. And I

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Speaker 1: know some of us are time poor in the mornings,

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Speaker 1: but just being able to get out and about with.

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Speaker 2: Them, just get up a bit earlier. Do you know

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Speaker 2: there was a study done in Victoria some years ago

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Speaker 2: and they asked the parents and the children which way

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Speaker 2: would they prefer to walk would be driven to school?

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Speaker 2: And seventy five percent I think were more of the

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Speaker 2: children said they'd like to walk, yeah, and over seventy

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Speaker 2: five percent of the parents said they prefer to drive.

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Speaker 2: So we know where the problem is. We've now got

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Speaker 2: to address that problem. And we've got to say listen

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Speaker 2: to parents. What you're doing to your children is not good.

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Speaker 2: You have to invest in their physical health, in their

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Speaker 2: mental health. Physical activity. It doesn't come free. You've got

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Speaker 2: to spend energy and time to get hit. So let's

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Speaker 2: get kids walking again. You can build walking into your

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Speaker 2: daily routine and you can get the necessary exercise you

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Speaker 2: require every day.

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Speaker 1: And I understand it's also the twentieth twenty fifth sorry

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Speaker 1: anniversary of the initiative this year, that's right.

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Speaker 2: And as I say, we've said we've set our kids

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Speaker 2: to eight thousand schools, fifteen hundred police stations and six

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Speaker 2: hundred councils throughout Australia and we're asking everyone to be

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Speaker 2: involved to get Australia walking again, walk more in twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff Well Pedestrian Council of Australia's CEO, Harold Scruby,

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Speaker 1: lovely to speak with you this morning. Good mate, thanks,

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Speaker 1: thanks you, thanks so much for your time.