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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 1 Hansard (14 February) . . Page.. 181 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

the pressure of that redevelopment in Kingston. Of course, that would be entirely inappropriate.

What is it that we are doing about urban renewal to make sure that we get it right? I think the most important part is the confidence people have in knowing what is happening and what is not happening, that that is where they can go having made their own investments. This is not a problem just for Canberra; it is a problem in Western cities right across the world to work out how to go about renewal and meeting contra needs of people.

Until such time as we get sensible planning of urban renewal, I will continue to oppose dual occupancies wherever they occur; so I have no difficulty with supporting the motion that Mr Corbell has put up today. But it is worth pointing out that there are some areas where we are doing it very well. I think the planning authorities have handled particularly well the redevelopment around the shopping centres in our suburbs. I think that is going extraordinarily well.

I think that the redevelopment of residential areas within Civic is putting a whole new vibrancy into the centre of the city. I have to say that I think that it is time for us to look at whether we can do exactly the same thing with regard to the Belconnen Town Centre and the area around Woden/Phillip, making sure that we set out on a master plan where we want it and encourage that residential redevelopment to build up.

I have to say that it strikes me that the Tuggeranong Town Centre would lend itself to being enhanced by an injection of residential redevelopment within the area. I think that there should be more debate on that because I think there are arguments both ways about that, as there are about everything. But it seems to me, certainly with regard to Woden and Phillip, that there is room for residential development, probably high-rise residential development, in those areas to bring vibrancy back into them and to make sure we have got more opportunity for affordable residences very close to where people work.

The planning that we focused on in Canberra for many years tried to put the work near where people were living. I think we are now at the stage where there are opportunities for people to live nearer to where they work and I think we should be pushing that further. We have done it very successfully so far in Civic. There is a long way still to go and there are still plenty of opportunities. We had a fairly clear idea about what it was that we were trying to achieve there. I think that we have got a clear idea about what we are trying to achieve with urban renewal in terms of the savings and the better use of the infrastructure that we have here, but how to go about implementing that urban renewal has not been handled well.

It is a difficult job. It is a great challenge. I am not saying that it is easy. I think that it is a real challenge for us. Until such time as we have managed it, I will continue to support these sorts of motions by Mr Corbell to prevent dual occupancy development.

That having been said, I still recognise that the motion is a motion that gives a very strong indication to the government about what this Assembly wants, but the executive still has the prerogative to exercise the power of the executive rather than the power of the Assembly, otherwise we will have to set about changing the legislation.

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