Page 1489 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 18 May 1993
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Tuesday, 18 May 1993
____________________
MADAM SPEAKER (Ms McRae) took the chair at 2.30 pm and read the prayer.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ministerial Arrangements
MS FOLLETT: I remind the Assembly that the Attorney-General is absent on leave until the end of this month. In his absence, members may direct to me any questions that they would have addressed to Mr Connolly in respect of any of his portfolios.
Woden Bus Interchange Kiosk
MRS CARNELL: My question is addressed to the Chief Minister. I refer the Chief Minister to a decision by the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning to raise the rent payable by the tenants of a kiosk in the Woden bus interchange by some 60 per cent. Chief Minister, today you are to tell the Assembly about great things that your Government is doing for business in the ACT. When your Government, acting as landlord, raises rent by 60 per cent during a time when the CPI increase stands at under 3 per cent, can you understand why business has lost confidence in the ability of your Government to create a stable business environment in the ACT?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mrs Carnell for the question. May I say that the document which Mrs Carnell made available to the media the media have in turn made available to me. In the time since then I have got some information but, I have to say, not all of the information, on this matter. Madam Speaker, I think it is important to note that the particular business that is at issue here is at the Woden bus interchange. I am sure that all members will be aware that from time to time there has been some very adverse publicity, some adverse community reaction, to the conditions at that bus interchange.
There is an area there, for instance, that has been known as "the black hole". For many years that area has been of special concern because of its poor design. It has been a location for some pretty antisocial behaviour, and it has been the subject of many complaints from the public and, on many occasions, the subject of police intervention. As a result of the concerns by the public, people were in fact being discouraged from using ACTION services from that location. During 1992 some funds were made available from the Federal Government's One Nation program for up to $400,000 to improve ACTION's interchanges, and the greatest priority in that program was seen to be Woden.
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