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Every one of us in this Assembly lives in the ACT. Our constituents live and work here. With the exception of Mr De Domenico, who does live in Conder, we live in much better serviced neighbourhoods than 30,000 people at the southern end of Tuggeranong.
Mr Wood: I live south of Calwell.
MR OSBORNE: Do you, Bill?
Mr Wood: I live south of Calwell.
MR OSBORNE: My apologies then. Good on you; you will agree with me then, Bill. Can we justify a population bigger than most Australian country towns being have-nots and being disadvantaged compared with the rest of us? Unfortunately, I cannot. I appeal to every member of the Assembly: Do you feel comfortable about it? Do you think it is fair to our fellow citizens? The far end of the Tuggeranong Valley is quite beautiful as an environment. Right now, there is snow on the tops of the hills. Some of the views would do justice to a calendar. If you detour through it a bit as you take the Monaro Highway to the mountains or the coast, you can see why so many people chose to take up the leases that were offered there.
At the very least, this Government should be moving fast to provide better shopping in and transport to our deep south. There is a crying need for the facilities that the rest of Canberra enjoys. I will talk about some of those on other occasions - like Tuggeranong needing a new police station and more health, recreational and sports facilities. But right now the biggest thing for me is the urgent need - - -
Members interjected.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Osborne does not need any assistance.
MR OSBORNE: Not from those two anyway, Madam Deputy Speaker. Right now the urgent need is for a shopping centre of some sort in the Conder area. It is only three months ago that the Planning Minister, Gary Humphries, talked about that.
Mr Kaine: It is about to be built.
MR OSBORNE: When, Trevor?
Mr Kaine: Any day now, they will be digging a hole.
MR OSBORNE: Watch this space. There is one shop in that whole area, at Gordon. Mr Humphries said that the unchecked expansion of town centres would kill off suburban shopping centres. He said that the short-term injection of cash would not justify the long-term loss of small business. He also said that this Government was committed to ensuring that people had access to a range of facilities but was determined to support local shops. A few days later the ACT Planning Authority told a meeting at Tuggeranong, that both Mr Whitecross and I were at, that a recent study of retailing in
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