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Calwell is quite a way south of these two large centres. South of Calwell there is Conder, Gordon, Theodore, Banks and, of course, Tharwa. Gordon is by Point Hut. Do you remember the days when Canberrans thought of Point Hut as a full day's drive in winter to go tobogganing?

The far end of Banks is only a few kilometres from Lanyon; but, I am telling you, not many people living in Banks can afford to go to Lanyon for a cup of up-market tea or coffee. Banks is about eight kilometres from the town centre and it is half an hour, at least, by bus. The buses down that end of the town run on the hour on weekdays. That means that a woman with a baby, and perhaps a toddler, has to spend a good half a day getting to and from the town centre. She has no nearer choice for shopping, a doctor or vaccinations for the little ones. Erindale is about the same distance from Banks as the crow flies, but you cannot get there directly by bus. Calwell is not quite as far - about five kilometres - but again you need a car to get there; there is no bus service. Calwell has only a few shops, no health centre and, as I said, no recreational facilities. If a woman with small children simply has to have the family car for the day, there are almost no public phones if she has any problems; and her husband is up for three separate bus trips - to the town centre, to Woden and then into Civic. That takes 45 minutes to an hour, if he is lucky; and at least an hour-and-a-half if he goes any further.

People in the southern end of this city are battling. They are financially stretched in our deep south; yet neither this Government nor the last one has done much or is doing much for their quality of life. But they are all ratepayers or rent payers.

Mr Berry: You voted for this lot.

MR OSBORNE: Wrong end of town.

Mr Berry: And they put the rates up by 4 per cent.

MR OSBORNE: Wrong end of town, Wayne. I know that successive waves of population in what were once new areas of Canberra feel that they had hard times at the beginning; but you cannot compare the lack of facilities in southern Tuggeranong with, say, conditions in central Woden 25 or 30 years ago. That was when young families in the new suburb of Chifley complained that they had only a few shops a short distance away at Phillip. They protested long and loud for the promised Woden shopping mall. They got it too, against the lobbying of the Canberra Chamber of Commerce, which was trying for as long as possible to keep Civic as the only large shopping centre. They got it because they convinced the then Federal Minister, Peter Nixon, as Minister for the Interior, of the justice of their case. They had bought their leases and mortgaged themselves to the hilt on the promise that shops and schools, bus services and recreational facilities would come shortly after the roads, the footpaths, the sewer and the electrical services. The Minister was a Country Party Minister from Victoria and was probably more interested in the Electoral Commission, which was in his portfolio, than in the Canberra voters; but he recognised their needs, and the Gorton Government honoured its obligations.

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