Page 2908 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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problems as they arise. Unfortunately, problems have a habit of getting out of control in the long run. We owe it to the residents of Canberra and the nation to ensure that we get it right and that we do not end up with the sorts of problems associated with traffic that the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and even Adelaide and Perth have experienced in recent years.
As the Canberra Times editorial of 28 October so aptly put it, the strategy "should address fundamental traffic and siting issues, the most urgent being, perhaps, the future of City Hill, the question of development along Constitution Avenue and how through traffic is to be handled". They are important, Mr Speaker, and relate to the development of Civic as a whole, not piecemeal development.
The citizens of Canberra, including the residents of the inner city suburbs, are entitled to a more visionary approach from their Government than a superficial, short-term one that does not meet their needs. The Rally calls on the Government to immediately revise its proposal to entrench commuter parking in the suburbs of Reid, Turner and Braddon. It is surely inappropriate for the Government to be marking out kerbs and parking bays in those suburbs when it has not yet received the comments it has sought in its process of - and I use the term advisedly - public consultation.
Urgent consideration should be given to implementing the major recommendations of the Loder and Bayly report of 1987, especially the closure of some streets, as Mr Moore has already indicated, and the banning of commuter parking by restricting parking in these areas from 9.00 am till 11.00 am. Such a restriction would return the amenity of those streets to the residents and casual visitors.
A quick check of the parking areas opposite the Reid TAFE and opposite the Lakeside Hotel shows that there is ample space to take the overflow from the suburban streets. We were given an indication of that in a briefing from government officials. The so-called strategy for Reid, Turner and Braddon, outlined in the document and shown on the map, seeks to legitimise forever this form of urban blight on residential areas. Once legitimised, Mr Speaker, it would be very difficult to remove it.
Another related area that is not covered by the so-called strategy is the failure to address the problems of residents in suburbs surrounding the Woden Town Centre, particularly Lyons. There are other areas where the problems have manifested themselves around group centres such as Kingston, Dickson and Manuka. Where does the strategy talk about addressing these problems, Mr Speaker? It does not. Is there a plan to encourage greater use of buses for workers and shoppers, or are we going to have to accept parking in suburban streets as par for the course? Surely we can do better than that in this national capital.
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