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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1984 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

The committee considers that there may be some important lessons for Canberra from the Christchurch experience. They include upgrading Canberra Airport to international status; developing and sponsoring more events and festivals, particularly during the winter period, to develop greater community pride and involvement in Canberra and the region; lobbying to have our road transport links upgraded; rapidly promoting the very high speed train service between Canberra and Sydney; examining the initiatives of the Christchurch City Council to help existing businesses and, if appropriate, adapt them to Canberra and our region; reconsidering the way we encourage businesses to relocate to or establish in Canberra; examining our employment assistance programs to see whether some of the Christchurch City Council's programs may be appropriate to the Territory; and continuing to focus on skills development through education and training.

In closing, Mr Speaker, the committee would like to express its appreciation to the many people we met in Christchurch. All of them were open and frank. All our meetings were stimulating and worth while and members of the committee have come back to Canberra with many ideas and a much broader perspective of the issues surrounding economic development and tourism. In particular, the committee would like to thank two Kiwis, the first being the Mayor of Christchurch, Ms Vicki Buck, who visited Canberra last November. We found that Ms Buck is widely respected and valued for her openness, progressive attitude and willingness to support new ideas. At some stage during every meeting the mayor's name was positively mentioned. Ms Buck is a risk taker who encourages people to have a go and, while recognising that some mistakes will be made in that process, has achieved a lot of success. The second Kiwi is Mr Chris Hyland from the Canterbury Development Corporation. Mr Hyland arranged an interesting and informative program of meetings for the committee, transported the committee during its stay, and provided helpful information to the committee between appointments. Mr Speaker, I commend this statement to the house.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to make a short statement in relation to the same matter.

Leave granted.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, the Economic Development and Tourism Committee's visit to Christchurch was a very interesting and very worthwhile visit to undertake. It was interesting, certainly from my perspective as a new member in this place, because it demonstrated both the importance and the viability of a government authority taking direct hands-on involvement in the management, control and operation of important services in the city and actually being able to influence the economic direction and economic development of a city the size of Christchurch. Christchurch, as Mr Hird has mentioned, Mr Speaker, is of a similar size population to our own city of Canberra. It was certainly very interesting and highly worth while to look at what the Christchurch City Council was able to achieve. It is important to recognise that the Christchurch City Council does not have all of the functions that we are responsible for in this place and in this Territory, but it has a large number of them.

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