Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 4636 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

Assembly and, of course, Mrs Carnell could point out that we did not pass a resolution about the brief we were given. It was a confidential brief which was given to us to provide feedback, and we were treated with disdain. It involves no-one from the Assembly and it makes no commitment to the full range of the needs of the people of the ACT.

When one looks at exactly what the Government is committing itself to, the plan becomes even more disappointing. The first major heading under the implementation plan is partnership. The call is for a forum. It calls for all manner of institutions to work together. It may come as a surprise to the Government, and it obviously has since they have gone to all the trouble of detailing it in the report, that since the beginning of self-government, and well before, these institutions have worked together. They have been talking to and working with each other for years and years. What is more, they have been involved in formal pre-budget processes. They have helped previous governments, as they did the current one, in the formulation of the budget and in the preparation of things of great concern to the ACT. So let us form a forum. Let us put a label on it. What difference will that make to anything? Nothing. What has this to do with strategic planning? None. Why do we need a strategic plan to say that we will form a forum? What nonsense! You could form a forum any day of the week. We have those people working together, and working extremely well.

A suggestion is made that the Government and the Chief Minister should meet regularly, not only with each other but with the Prime Minister. What a novel idea; as if Mrs Carnell has never spoken to the Prime Minister. How many front pages of the Canberra Times have we seen her on, talking to the PM or exhorting the PM? What about our previous Chief Minister? I think we would find just as many of her talking to Mr Keating, and so on. What a novel idea: We need a strategic plan to tell our Chief Minister to go and talk to the Prime Minister. Pull my other leg; it squeaks a lot louder. Nonsense! For the last seven years every Chief Minister has spoken to the Prime Minister. There has been cooperation at government and agency level between the Federal government and the local government. People have talked, and people will continue to talk, and we do not need a strategic plan to say, "Go away, boys and girls, and talk to each other".

To move on, this document says:

This Strategic Plan re-emphasises the critical importance of the central, "metropolitan core" of Canberra.

Re-emphasises from where? Since when was the metropolitan centre of Canberra ever the heart of our life in the ACT? Mr Whitecross pointed out the Y plan. What about the Territory Plan? What about every effort that we have witnessed in this Assembly, particularly from my erstwhile colleague today, Mr Moore, to resist the development of a metropolitan centre because he rightly represented his constituents who resented any move by this Government to change the fundamental nature of Canberra, to change from town centres. This is not a re-emphasis of the critical importance of the metropolitan centre; it is an abandonment of the town centres and an attempt to repaint the

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .