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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4162 ..

MR MOORE: Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to inform the Assembly that on 12 November 1997 the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment agreed that the following statement on the Assembly's referral of a petition on the Curtin shopping precinct be made to the Assembly.

On 28 August 1997, Ms Reilly, MLA, tabled a petition in the Assembly. The petition was from 1,331 residents and read:

That the Curtin Shopping Precinct is in need of an upgrade of its public amenities and public spaces as they are in a condition that is of concern to public safety.

That the Curtin Shopping Precinct has missed out on any funding through the ACT Government's Precinct Management capital works program.

The petitioners asked the Assembly to:

Immediately undertake a consultative process with the community and Traders of the Curtin Shopping Precinct into concerns relating to the Curtin Shopping Precinct's public amenities and public spaces.

After tabling the petition, Ms Reilly moved that it be referred to the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment. In speaking to this motion, Ms Reilly emphasised four points. She mentioned that the retailers feel that they are not getting any assistance from the Government to look at the public areas. She said that the retailers are quite concerned about the fact that a number of other group centres and other smaller shopping centres have appeared on the upgrade list for precinct management in the last two budgets, but the Curtin shopping precinct has failed to appear in any of the budgets. Ms Reilly expressed concern about the unevenness of the pavement, which caused older people in particular to be worried about using the centre. She stated that traders and the users of Curtin shops were not asking for special privileges; they were simply asking for the same opportunities as some of the other group centres in the ACT to have their public fabric improved.

The Minister for Urban Services, Mr Kaine, MLA, responded by saying that Curtin is on the list for upgrade and has been for at least three years, and that Curtin is the next cab off the rank. He advised the Assembly that the precinct committee will be established before this year is out. The Minister added that there are other shopping centres that are worse off than Curtin, and that is why they took precedence in the upgrading program. After the Minister spoke, I moved for the adjournment of the matter in order to give time for my colleagues on the Planning and Environment Committee to privately discuss the referral of the petition. We did this the very next day, 29 August, and again on 19 September, when we decided that we were comfortable about the referral of the petition.

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