Page 4189 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 29 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Even the Chief Minister has said that the major employment growth, assuming that we ever get any in the ACT, will come from small businesses - small, family owned businesses in Canberra and in the Tuggeranong Valley. We also know that youth unemployment is one of the major problems in this city. We also know the demographics of the Tuggeranong Valley and that youth unemployment is one of the major problems in the valley. Where do young people get jobs, Minister? The fact of the matter is that a very large percentage of those 2,000-odd Canberrans under the age of 19 who cannot get jobs in this city would normally be looking for jobs in small retail outlets in neighbourhood or group centres. You have to ask why they cannot get them. I will let the Assembly know that at the end of this MPI we will be moving a motion along the lines of seeking a moratorium, to be instituted immediately, to ensure that proposed extensions to the Hyperdome and other retail sites in the immediate area are not proceeded with until a full analysis of the social and commercial needs of the Tuggeranong Valley is completed.
I think we have to get back to the issues involved in this whole situation, and that comes back to the planning of Canberra. We are all aware that the initial plan had three sorts of retail outlets in this city. They were the town centres, the group centres and the local neighbourhood centres. Those local neighbourhood centres were not just a commercial focus for this city; they were a community focus, and they should still be a community focus. They were meeting places. They were usually adjacent to the local school, to churches, to community halls, to community houses and so on. They were areas where people could get together, could meet each other, could buy their groceries, and could buy the other things that they needed. They were areas where certain services were provided, such as a doctor's surgery, in some cases a dentist, and maybe a real estate agent.
They are small centres, but they are centres that are absolutely central to a city that was planned on the basis of the car. We all know how very difficult it is to get around Canberra if you do not have a car. Where do a large percentage of people who do not have a car, or for whatever reason do not have access to one during the day, go to shop? Where do they go to meet people? Where do they go to have a cup of coffee? The fact is that they go somewhere within walking distance, and that is the local neighbourhood centre.
Mr Berry: You contributed to the collapse of local shopping centres.
MRS CARNELL: They go to the local neighbourhood centre.
Mr De Domenico: Come on! She owns a local shop in a local centre, for heaven's sake.
Mr Berry: By ensuring that the chemists were closed down and bought out.
MRS CARNELL: That is not my idea; that is your jolly Federal Government's idea. Your Federal Government did it.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .