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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4623 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

and for our children. A strategic plan is not a document that sits on the shelf; it is not a document that gathers dust. It is a document that is added on to; that continues to grow. We believe that by getting the input of Canberrans, by asking Canberrans to give us their views. I am very happy to table the "Give Us Your Views" document from "National Capital Beyond 2000 : Facing our Future" just to show all members of the Assembly that they, too, can give us their views.

The document I have presented today is an action document. It is a document that takes the approach that has been taken in the past by this Government and by all those around this Assembly to concentrate on making sure that we have a sound economic future, that we have jobs for ourselves and our kids, that we maintain the environment, that we have a sustainable future, that we ensure that services are accessible, that the city is livable and that our services are affordable. All of those things are the basis of this plan. It is an action plan; it is a plan that will change over time.

This is a plan that we hope the Federal Government will come on board with, as we believe they will. Already the Minister, Warwick Smith, and the Prime Minister have said that they support the general direction of this approach. We believe that that is an appropriate approach. We believed strongly that we could not wait, and we would not wait, another three months or four months for the Federal Government to get through their bureaucratic process of coordinating comments from all of their departments. Mr Speaker, I believe very strongly that Canberra, right now, needs to focus on what we want for our city and to get on with the job of making sure it is a reality.

Mr Speaker, the Government is proud of this strategic plan. It is the most significant long-term planning exercise in the Territory since self-government. Some in this house do not seem to like the document because it does not back up their preconceived views of what Canberrans want. If any of those people are interested in looking at what Canberrans actually said, looking at what feedback we actually had from the surveys and so on, they are more than welcome to have a look at that information. Mr Speaker, this is not a spin from government. If it is a spin from anybody, it is a spin from the people of Canberra. I believe this is an important document, and it certainly will be the basis for Government decision-making in the future.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (3.49): Mr Speaker, there could be nothing more important to Canberra at this stage in its life than a strategic plan. Given the debates that have occurred over the last several years on planning, given the debates that have occurred over the last several years on economic development and given the more recent crisis in the Canberra economy precipitated by the lack of commitment to the economic future of Canberra by the Commonwealth Government and the ACT Government, there could be nothing more important than a strategic plan. A strategic plan would take the objectives which we have all agreed on in the Territory Plan, it would take the objectives of the Canberra in the year 2020 project undertaken under the previous Government which were endorsed by the whole Assembly, and it would map out for us the steps, the strategies and the plans for progressing us towards those objectives.

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