Page 1931 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 1992
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I am prepared to wait until the discussion paper is on the table. Mr Wood tells us that that is imminent. I have no reason to suppose that our bureaucrats have some ulterior motivation, some hidden agenda, some different purpose from that expressed by the Labor Party and the Liberal Party on this issue, and I am prepared to wait until they put their suggestions and recommendations on the table before I start springing to wrong conclusions. Mr Wood has pointed out that the study includes the area running from the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge all the way around the foreshore, and that that part of the development is exclusively the responsibility of the National Capital Planning Authority. I believe that the things that have been suggested as possible uses, as a result of that study, have been good ones. That part of the lake does need to be tied to the developing city. It is quite remote at the moment. It is unused. It in no way is contributing to the benefit of this community. It should be linked together in some fashion and put to a use such that the community gets some benefit from it.
When we move around towards the Acton Peninsula area and we start talking about putting health related facilities there, it was rightly pointed out to me this morning by Mrs Carnell, who obviously is concerned about this too, that if you put rehabilitation and convalescence facilities down there it is no good just dumping them and leaving them totally isolated from the rest of the world. If you put aged people down there, if you put convalescing people down there, you have to put near them some shopping facilities that they can get to. It is no good saying, "Here are your crutches; get yourself up to Civic". In order that they can be rehabilitating and convalescing in a reasonable environment, there does need to be, perhaps, some residential accommodation down there so that these people are not being pushed off into Siberia to do their rehabilitating or their convalescing. There must be other kinds of development on that site. To simply say that we are going to restore the old H Block, or whatever it is, and turn it into a rehabilitation centre does not even begin to address the question. If that is what Mr Moore thinks, I do not know what else he is dreaming up.
There does need to be some real thought put into this. Some real thought is being put into it, as far as I am aware. I have heard nothing, except from Mr Moore and Ms Szuty, that would raise questions in my mind about the ultimate use of this site. So, as I say, why put this sort of thing on the agenda and cause people out there concern? My phone is going to be ringing over the next few days. Some specific people, whose names you all know, I am sure, are going to be ringing me up and saying, "What are you doing about all this?". Well, the answer is that I am not doing anything, except waiting for the two planning authorities to give me some sensible recommendations as to what we might do.
Mr Wood also raised the point that there is a short-term problem and a long-term problem. What we do in the long term is yet to be determined. He is quite right. The buildings are sitting there and if we are not careful they will deteriorate, unless they are put to some useful purpose. I understand that the Government has some ideas in mind for their short-term use. Since the information that I have has come to me through committee deliberations, I do not think it is my right or responsibility to announce that yet. I am sure that the Government will do it when they are good and ready. But I know that there are certain matters being considered that will maintain those buildings - maintain them in use and maintain their useability for whatever the long-term aim is. I said that I was not going to say very much as I did not need to; that Mr Wood had spelt it out. Perhaps I had better sit down before I overrun my time, Madam Speaker.
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