Page 3280 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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ACT, it makes sense that it is centrally located. A new Canberra theatre co-located with the existing theatre infrastructure is an obvious example. This is why we are pursuing that project. The City Renewal Authority has an important part to play in the delivery of that project alongside the Cultural Facilities Corporation as the eventual asset owner and Major Projects Canberra as the delivery entity for the physical construction of the new asset. The City Renewal Authority has the opportunity to integrate that public spend into the broader precinct and seek to attract other complementary investment to ensure that we have a world class arts and cultural precinct in the city centre. That is the role that the City Renewal Authority will be playing.
It is not the only project though, and Ms Clay and others have touched upon other projects, events and activities that the City Renewal Authority supports. There is a specific task here: the oldest infrastructure in the city, in the territory, some of our city’s few great heritage buildings. This is necessary work and I acknowledge Mr Parton’s support for it. But to suggest that there is nothing else happening across other town or group centres in the ACT is unfair and untrue. One needs to only look at the range of projects and investment occurring in Woden, Belconnen, Gungahlin and the Tuggeranong Town Centre to get a sense of what is happening in the other parts, the other major town centres in the territory. It is not just at town centre level, it is also at group centre level. I think we have an opportunity, as an aside, through the district level planning and the work that Minister Gentleman is leading, to be able to encourage some more local centre rejuvenation through clever and careful planning policy. All of this comes together, though, with a view that the city is for everyone, and Canberra, as the national capital, should have a CBD that people are proud of. What is the alternative? That we have a hole in the centre of our territory and that there is no investment in the oldest area of Canberra that is one of the fastest growing.
Finally, on Mr Parton’s observations, everyone in this place is parochial about their own electorate. I do not think there is any doubt about it and it is what you would expect. My experience is that the least parochial members are actually from Kurrajong. That has been my experience over the time that this electorate has existed. Perhaps it is a historical accident around the fact that this part of Canberra is the oldest and it has always been at the centre and there has always been electorates to the south and electorates to the north and electorates to the west. If the accusation from Mr Parton is that I, like every other member in this place, also play a local member role, if that is the accusation, then yes, I will plead guilty to that. I am as passionate about my electorate as each of you are about your own. That is fair. That is reasonable. My community also has needs. So it is unsurprising that I would be in favour of delivering for my own community, just as you all are for yours.
So I reject the assertion that the City Renewal Authority is somehow a special creature that looks after only the CBD for the residents. It does not. It plays a role for everyone in Canberra. Most people in Canberra at some point in the year, and for fifty or sixty thousand people every single day from all over the ACT, come into the city to work or for entertainment or any other range of activities. The idea that Canberra would not have a good CBD, I think, is poor public policy and poor for the image of the national capital. So that is why I support this appropriation, why it is important that the City Renewal Authority continues its work. It does not mean that other parts of Canberra are excluded. One needs to only look at the flow of investment right
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