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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 3680 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

1995 or 1996, introduced a controversial measure. We restricted the hours of operation of the larger centres in an effort to help the small centres that were going out backwards.

I fully supported that proposal, Mr Speaker, and I was a little disappointed when we bowed to community pressure and the overwhelming number of people, about 85 per cent of our population, who did not like that idea and wanted to have unrestricted access to the major centres and the group centres. But we adhered to community wishes, and that is what democracy is all about, and towards the end of the last Assembly that decision was reversed.

It was interesting that during the moratorium there was about a six per cent increase in the number of people going to the local suburban shopping centres. That was all. There was a minority government, the Carnell government, in the Third Assembly then, and, despite the very best efforts of the majority of the Assembly, people still voted with their feet. They liked going to the malls and the group centres. The little suburban shops did not get the level of support that even that measure would force upon them, so we came up with our local centre plan.

I am amazed at the Greens, really. Mr Humphries made a very valid point, I think, yesterday. The Greens talk about sustainable development. They talk about the need for urban infill. Yet in this Assembly they have opposed every single proposal for sensible urban infill. In terms of paragraph (2) of the motion, I think this is another example. You really cannot have it both ways. Something has to be done for those little local suburban centres that are dying.

I have lived in a couple of small suburbs with local centres since I have been an adult. From 1979 until about 1993-94 I was in Rivett. When I went there in 1979 there was a vibrant little shopping centre with about six or seven shops-a service station, a pharmacy, a butcher's shop, two supermarkets, and a couple of other shops. By the time I left at the end of 1993 it was down to two shops plus the service station. I think the service station has closed since.

When I went to Macgregor there were two and a bit shops. I would go down to the Butts-'N'-Brew supermarket to get stuff and half the time it was closed. There was a hairdresser shop there, and for a little while there might have been a little takeaway shop, but that did not last long.

I think Mr Rugendyke has been to a couple of meetings on what to do with Macgregor shops. Currently I think there is a hairdresser there occasionally. The Butts-'N'-Brew has closed. The doctor who is there is really concerned about vandalism and the fact that there is no shopping centre there anymore. Frankly, unless something happens to that shopping centre he is going to walk. The people in my suburb, many of whom are underprivileged, or do not have access to cars, or are on pensions, or live in government housing or other housing, or do not have the wherewithal to travel, are going to miss that service. Basically, that shopping centre has died.

We, as a government, in the Third Assembly, tried to do something about it. I will not criticise Mr Corbell because I think he may not have been in here when we introduced that. We tried to do something about it. What we did was not popular and accordingly,

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