Page 3594 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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freedom to communicate and to participate in recreation. This is a wonderful thought for the older generation. Canberra in 2020 will provide excellent opportunities for new businesses and new services. Products will be made easily and tested rapidly. They will be brought into production and distributed by state-of-the-art systems.
We as elected representatives of the Canberra community do need to step back from the day-to-day decision making of government and its associated politicking and to think more about the issues raised in the study. The study also highlighted what we can start doing now in the form of action in health and in preventing violence and social dependencies. Madam Speaker, we can all read this report and say, "Yes, there are a lot of things in it that we do not agree with". But, after all, it is a vision; it is a study. It is not going to be perfect. It is what people foresee and possibly a lot of what they would like to see happen in Canberra, what they would like Canberra to be.
Madam Speaker, I enjoyed reading it. I thought it was interesting to read about what people had looked at and had studied, and the way they thought Canberra would be at that time. Like Ms Ellis and some of the other members here, there are a few things that I had a smile about and I did not quite agree with, but there are a lot of very good things in there. I thought that if they were to come into being and became part of the city we live in in 2020 - please, God, we will all be here to see that - it will be a wonderful city to live in. It will be a wonderful city because it will be taking care of the elderly and it will be taking care of the young. It will be an ideal city for all who live here. We can all dream.
Mr Humphries: Not during question time.
MRS GRASSBY: We can all hope that it will be the sort of city we would like to live in. Mr Humphries, you have not been here all afternoon.
Mr Humphries: I have been working hard.
MRS GRASSBY: They tell me that you have been away having a snooze, but maybe that is not true.
Mr Humphries: No, that is not true, Mrs Grassby.
MRS GRASSBY: Madam Speaker, as I say, I enjoyed reading it. Ms Szuty came up with this idea. Let us congratulate her on it. That is what we are here for - for people to come up with ideas.
Mr Humphries: That is what you are here for, not us, I can assure you.
MRS GRASSBY: No; the Opposition is supposed to play a part in the government too. It is very hard for the Liberals to do that. Obviously Ms Szuty found a way of doing it. She does it extremely well, as does Mr Moore. But we know that the Liberals are just spoilers. They are here just to spoil - except for Mr Kaine, of course. Mr Kaine does not spoil anything. He does a very good job. I am sure that in the year 2020 Mr Kaine will be back here leading the Liberals and doing a wonderful job, as he has done in the past.
Mr De Domenico: He will be 109 by then, I think.
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