Page 4280 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 October 1991
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I would note, just in passing, in relation to the question of rejuvenating Garema Place, that I am heartened to hear your comments in relation to my drinking Bill which hopefully we will finalise when we next have our part of private members' business in a couple of weeks' time, on the first Wednesday of those sittings. Garema Place is one of the problem areas where there is anti-social drinking. That is also referred to in your report.
I would indicate to members, however, that there is a proviso in my Bill whereby people who want to conduct proper activities in any area can take out a permit, as they can currently. If someone, for example, wanted to have, say, an Oktober beerfest in Garema Place - that certainly would be a quite nice area for something like that - they could take out a permit, sell beer there and everyone could have a good time. That is not incompatible and is provided for in that piece of legislation which really aims to stop the unfortunate anti-social behaviour that has given Garema Place a very bad name in recent years.
I note that some of the problems have been alleviated by the very effective and incredibly popular move-on powers. Garema Place was one of the problem areas. But there are still a number of other steps that could be taken, and I think my drinking Bill, if and when enacted, will certainly help. Nothing in it is incompatible with rejuvenating Garema Place. In fact, it is mutually complementary to that occurring.
A number of tourists have complained to me on two counts. Firstly, people I know who have gone into Civic have been somewhat concerned by loutish behaviour at certain times, usually Friday night, early Saturday morning, Saturday night, and early Sunday morning. Further steps still need to be taken to correct that. Another complaint also has been that there is not all that much to do in Canberra; there is not much night-life. Most of the night-life that is around is pretty seedy, and most people do not particularly want to go to that.
I think Canberra, and Civic Centre certainly, does need something that is acceptable to the vast majority of tourists who come to our city, and, indeed, to ordinary Canberra folk who would like, I think, to use their city and their city centre more after dark. In some instances they are either scared to do so - which I think is a very sad state - or not particularly interested in doing so because there is not all that much on, apart from maybe the pictures and the theatre. So, I think those two things need to be addressed. In terms of something to do, the second thing, a rejuvenation of Garema Place, would help.
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