Page 2174 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 3 August 2021
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Back in February, Dr Paterson’s motion outlined the importance of the Molonglo Valley having a representative community council, a body that can provide representative stakeholder voices as the government consults on a wide range of significant infrastructure projects, and also services and programs, that are already shaping the region.
I recently gave an update to the Assembly about the transport infrastructure investments that the government is making in the Molonglo Valley that are either underway or being planned at the moment. We know that the new Molonglo Valley Community Council will play an important role in helping to provide information to their own community about those projects and also get involved in the planning and design of those projects, going forward.
There are a lot of big pieces of work to come in the infrastructure space, with the completion of John Gorton Drive, among others. The new bridge over the Molonglo River is a top priority. There is also a whole range of other work, particularly in the planning space, with new estate developments. No doubt they will have a role in helping to inform those, particularly in relation to the Molonglo commercial centre, which is going to be an important hub for the Molonglo Valley. And there are all the other things that make a community, like new public schools that are being planned in the Molonglo Valley and new community facilities. They have already played a really important role in helping shape the Coombs and Wright Village on Fred Daley Avenue. We would like to engage with them in terms of co-design for a new library and community centre in the future, located in the commercial centre.
The Molonglo Valley Community Forum have already demonstrated their valuable role in engaging with us on what we can do in the interim to provide community facilities. I was really pleased that they were able to work with the community to identify a range of groups that wanted to use a community space in the interim. They demonstrated that the size of the facility that was needed would be around 300 square metres and that it would be used regularly by many different community groups. That has contributed to a great result in the Molonglo Valley.
These are the kinds of things that good local community councils and government can achieve when we work constructively together to understand communities’ needs and find collaborative solutions. I am looking forward to further engagement with the group in its new form as a community council.
I have been to several of their meetings. It is great to be able to engage with such a mature group. Even though they are a new group, they have demonstrated real maturity in their ability to work constructively with government and the many agencies they deal with, particularly in a growing area like the Molonglo Valley—with the Suburban Land Agency in particular—to get really great outcomes. I will be very pleased to work with them in their new form.
MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (11.51): I rise to add my voice to the positive discussion today with regard to the new Molonglo Valley Community Council. I thank members present for all the work that has gone into setting that up, including
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