Page 286 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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One good example of that, of course, is the draft Territory Plan. For those of us who have spent years looking at planning issues it was possible, with some time and care, to understand what that draft Territory Plan was about. The difficulty for people who were not used to planning and saw the draft Territory Plan for the very first time was that it was almost impossible to read. They needed an interpreter. Indeed, a number of professional planners told me that they had a great deal of difficulty and required a great deal of time to understand what the plan was about. So, material must be in an accessible form.
In her statement Rosemary Follett suggested that the program of the third Labor Government was not a grab-bag of tricks but a planned agenda. From the public's point of view, it is still a grab-bag of politically expedient tricks, full of party politics and bearing little relationship to the problems felt in the community. If we are really going to assess the problems felt in the community, there must be a minimum 20-year plan for development, for employment growth, for education, health, conservation, environment, economic policies and so on.
Whilst we are dealing with the immediate issues at hand, we must also set about planning a long-term strategy for the welfare of the ACT. That the Labor Government intends to be more responsive to the needs of the community is an appropriate ideal. However, imposing laws such as the compulsory wearing of bicycle helmets, even though there has been a quite clear view in the community, backed by research, that the law could well be counterproductive - - -
Mr Connolly: There is no such view. Talk to the Child Accident Prevention Foundation.
MR MOORE: What people like Mr Connolly are doing is imposing their view rather than responding to what the community wants.
Mr Connolly: Every government in Australia shares that view.
MR MOORE: I do not care what every government in Australia does. Every government in Australia is run by either Labor or the Liberal Party.
Mr Cornwell: I am not so sure about New South Wales.
Ms Ellis: Say that again.
MR MOORE: The interjection was "I am not so sure about New South Wales". I thought it was an excellent interjection, Mr Cornwell. We should take a great deal of care to consider whether we are imposing laws or whether we are being responsive to community needs.
If we look at the closure of the Royal Canberra Hospital - granted, that happened in the previous Assembly, but it allows me to make the point - it was a notion that was imposed rather than being responsive. Any assessment in the ACT of whether that hospital should have been closed or not will come up with the same result - that there is widespread community concern about the closure of that hospital. There is now no long-term plan for Acton Peninsula. It is far too wafty simply to say that it will have a public health facility. What we need is a hospital for the growing suburbs in the north of Canberra, to take care of people on the north side. Indeed, we are past the point of no return. The point I am making is that it was anything but a responsive approach to the community.
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