Page 1048 - Week 04 - Thursday, 1 April 1993
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CANBERRA IN THE YEAR 2020 STUDY
Ministerial Statement and Papers
Debate resumed from 25 February 1993, on motion by Ms Follett:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MS SZUTY (11.55): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to respond to the second quarterly report of the Canberra in the Year 2020 study and to place my comments on the record. I claim an overwhelming interest in this process as it was as a result of my motion in the Assembly last year that we have commenced thinking about our medium- and long-term future as a self-governing Territory. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the effort by which the Government has produced these issues papers within a short timespan and that the reference group membership will soon be announced by the Chief Minister. Those people will then have the task of producing much of the work that goes into the third stage of this process. So I think it is timely to place Assembly members' views on the record to give some indication as to how we feel the process is going.
Firstly, I would like to outline what I feel is expected of this process by the Canberra community. I know that not many Canberrans will be aware of the nature and the scope of this exercise and that they may be waiting for more public processes to commence before having a major input, but the major expectation of those people with whom I have discussed the 2020 vision is that it will discuss a wide range of options with as many scenarios put forward as possible. It may not be possible to be expansive in the timeframe allowed; however, this process is about vision, so a reasonably wide range of options must be presented for discussion and debate. The process is also expected to be receptive to the views of the community, so that decisions about revenue raising measures, future planning, education and all the other areas of activity which form the basis of a thriving community can be a reflection of that community's aspirations. The process is also expected to be open, clear and devoid of jargon. The process must also start with a clear outline of where we are at the present time. We must all be aware of the starting parameters. If I may make an analogy, it is like following a map. If we have an idea of where we are going we can define that on the map, but if we have different ideas of where we are to start we will never arrive at our destination.
What have we established from this process? The first point that follows from my last statement is the fact that the issues papers have not been able to agree on the demographic scenario which will face the ACT in the year 2020. In the first report we have been presented with three scenarios - one representing a booming economy, which would result in a population of 542,000; a second declining scenario resulting in a population of 401,500; and a medium scenario which gives a figure of 516,500 people by the year 2020. In a confounding leap of logic, Background Paper No. 1, "Demographic Projections", goes on to rename the boom scenario as the medium scenario. In the first paper our growth rate was set at 2 per cent to arrive at a population of 516,500 by 2020, yet the background paper on demographics claims that the same growth rate would now produce a population of 540,000.
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