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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 10 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2939 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

Keeping political promises is very important. It is what the previous government attempted to do, even if it took four or five years to do it. For the most part, I applaud the government for attempting to do this. Every government should do it, but let us be clear in our minds what the cost of delivering these promises is.

Let me be blunt about it. The cost in the ACT is potentially horrendous, not only for us here and now but for those who are yet to come. We are talking about decisions about the future-the long-term future. Surely, it behoves us to get it right-to get it exactly right. If that means it takes some time and some finetuning, so be it.

There is too much at stake for us to run headlong and hope blindly that the detail will take care of itself. We have done this in the past. The most egregious example of this is the outcome of the land act, which has been said here by me and in other places to be a most inadequate and flawed piece of legislation. It is probably the most inadequate and flawed piece of legislation that has passed in any parliament. We have doctored it up along the way for the past seven to 10 years, and we are chafing under its yolk.

Let us proceed, by all means, but let us not be driven by haste and political imperative, because that can only end with an outcome that is not tested by any real rigour. We have an opportunity now to apply rigour, and I urge the members of the Assembly in the strongest terms to grasp the opportunity to shape the future of Canberra with the attention it deserves.

When we look at the OECD report, we find a whole lot of what needs to be done to shape the future of Canberra. The minister has always talked about the OECD imperative to develop the strategy and the vision for Canberra, but in addition to the strategy and vision for Canberra the OECD report tells us that we should realise the potential for Civic and have a strategic vision for a sustainable Canberra which can be implemented if resources are directed towards creating a market for the renewal and improvement of the city.

Civic has been identified as a priority and an opportunity for Canberra. Developing appropriate mechanisms to implement the goals articulated in the strategy developed for Civic is essential to ensure that Civic becomes appropriate for the 21st century. Much work done by the previous government on revitalising Civic flows into that, but it should also flow in context with the strategic plan.

The other thing that the OECD says that we need to do is to foster endogenous growth. It says:

A sustainable Canberra will be dependent upon accelerating a diverse culture of entrepreneurship. The city is in a strong position to do this and the Innovation Framework is an important opportunity. It must however, become the dynamic strategy for growth that it seeks to be and will require ongoing monitoring and development to deliver optimal outcomes.

The OECD report says that there is a lot there. A lot of work has already been done, and we should be taking all those threads and weaving them together into the important strategic plan, which is an overarching structure that gives us a spatial plan, a social plan and an economic white paper. These things should not be rushed into.

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