Page 3890 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 30 November 2021
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Florey community and other communities that have significant dryland ovals, including Macgregor, Spence and Macquarie. I want to add my voice to those commending community members, particularly Gay Robertson and Greg Blood, for their engagement with us and for their dedication in their advocacy about what Florey oval might be used for.
I note that, of course, the primary school’s uses are paramount in considerations for the future uses of the oval. Minister Berry has been leading that consultation for some time now in, essentially, a co-design process with that school community—with the students, the teachers and the parents as well. That is obviously the very important first step, but I welcome the management plans—which will be consulted on with the community, as Minister Berry has flagged, in 2022—and how they will interact with the play spaces strategy going forward.
As Ms Orr said, I appreciate the intent of Mr Cain’s motion. I do not think there is any need to scaremonger, but I absolutely support Ms Orr’s amendment to Mr Cain’s amendment because, as always, this needs to be done as a partnership with the community. That is what the community is asking for and would want in any future discussions in this place. So I commend Ms Orr’s amendment to Mr Cain’s amendment to the original motion, and I thank Ms Clay for bringing it today.
MR CAIN (Ginninderra) (4.44): Thank you for the consultation on the floor. Of course, this is not the first time that either side of this Assembly has covered the business of the day in that manner. I am comfortable with this amendment from Ms Orr. I am not quite sure if there is scope to add the word “the” before the word “community,” which would be the normal reading of such a phrase.
I will be supporting Ms Orr’s amendment to my amendment, but I want to raise something that has been very topical and is of great significance and concern to me. That is this government’s track record on consulting with the community. I have been involved—as have many members here, particularly my colleagues from Ginninderra—with the William Hovell Drive duplication, and we have seen failed community consultation at both the planning and the city services level. I have been intimately connected, as shadow planning minister, with the planning review, having attended six of the eight district planning forums. As I spoke about last week, the district councils in this city are very concerned about the poor consultation with which they were engaged on a review of ACT planning laws.
So, while I appreciate Ms Orr’s amendment, and will be supporting it, I say to this government: I hope you mean what this amendment contains. What I mean by that is that consultation with the community should be authentic, genuine, comprehensive and wholeheartedly wanting to hear what the community says. The track record up to this point is not very good. I thank members for the opportunity to speak. I will be supporting Ms Orr’s amendment.
MRS KIKKERT (Ginninderra) (4.46): I thank Ms Clay for bringing this matter to the Assembly, and I thank Mr Cain and Ms Orr for their contributions. The motion to improve and vary the use of our dryland ovals is an important one. It has particular relevance to the Ginninderra region, as it is home to the same amount of dryland ovals
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