Page 4191 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 29 November 1994
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On top of that, I understand that at one stage there was a proposal to auction, on 1 December, another 4,500 square metres for bulky goods adjacent to or very close to the Hyperdome. I was very pleased to read in the newspaper this morning - I am sure that the Minister will clarify this - that that sale has been withdrawn. I would hope that it continues to be withdrawn until we have had a proper look at what the needs of the valley really are. The fact is that if you drive around Canberra, and certainly if you drive around the valley, it would be hard not to come up with the conclusion that we already have too much retail space in this city. Almost every local centre, and a large percentage of the group centres, has empty space, or space that is not totally utilised. What does that tell us? That tells us that planning in this city - government policy, community policy and retail policy - is simply not working.
We have closed shops. What do closed shops mean? They mean bankrupt businesses. They mean people who have lost their houses. They mean people who have lost everything. These are not your big national chains. These are mum and dad businesses in Canberra. They are people who send their kids to school here, people who have made Canberra their home. They are not people who send their profits out of this city. They are not people who send their profits overseas. What else do those closed shops show? For every 3.9 jobs that were lost in those closed small shops around Canberra, only one job was created in the larger supermarkets or in the larger stores. So, we lose almost four jobs and we create one job. That, obviously, is really good social policy! That is a really great way to create jobs! Certainly, Mrs Kelly seems to think it is a great way to create jobs. She forgot to tell us that we are going to lose 800 jobs before we can create the 200 jobs. That is a particularly good social policy!
Again, we come back to things that really matter in this city, and that is things like 2,000 youth unemployed and an unknown number of women who would normally get jobs in their local shopping centres, who would normally be able to pick up some part-time work when the kids are at school, or when it is practical for family life, who cannot do so if these neighbourhood centres fall over. So, where will the jobs come from? Where will we be able to employ these 2,000 young people under the age of 19? Where will our students get part-time work? Just as importantly, where will women - women with children and who are often at home and who want some part-time work - get the jobs that they have traditionally got?
That is not even considering the social issues around allowing our small suburban shopping centres to go to the wall. There is the issue of Canberra's ageing. We know that in percentage terms Canberra is ageing at a faster rate than other cities. What are Canberra's ageing people going to do to get down to the Hyperdome if they do not have a local shopping centre? Are they going to get onto an ACTION bus? We know that ACTION buses are very well designed for elderly people to get onto! There are not too many low-step buses in the ACT. I suggest that there are probably none. There might be one that is being trialled. So, they cannot get onto a bus. They are going to have to get a cab. We all know that that is simply beyond the means of lots of people. Canberra's disadvantaged people do not have access to a car.
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