Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (13 March) . . Page.. 1039 ..
MR STANHOPE
(continuing):residents of Canberra, as residents of this place, our home, with the planning decisions that are made for and about us and the relationships between our community, our homes and our natural and built environment. A part of that environment, of course, is the fact that we have developed three beautiful lakes which we do not utilise properly.
Ms Dunne
: What are you doing about it?MR STANHOPE
: What I have done about it is that in a very structured, sensible and intelligent way I have raised the issue for discussion, community debate and interaction, and it is working. The Canberra Times reported the speech. The ABC is running the issue. It is an issue which the people of Canberra actually have views about.I will conclude on this point, and it may be a point I make at my own cost, but it was an interesting point in the context of the audience that listened to the speech yesterday: the most significant audience response to the entire speech was on the issue of how we connect to our community, this very issue of the NCA and our relationship with the NCA. It was this one issue in a long speech-a half-hour-that excited audience response. It is a significant issue and I propose to continue with the issue irrespective of the asinine nonsense being expressed by Mrs Dunne and the Liberals.
MS DUNNE
: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. This is probably going to be a big ask. Will the government support the development of a community arts centre on Lake Ginninderra like the one on Lake Tuggeranong, thus providing a much-needed facility for you to interact with the lake, Chief Minister?Mr Hargreaves
: I rise to order, Mr Speaker. Mrs Dunne is asking for the Chief Minister to declare government policy.MR STANHOPE
: Thank you, Mr Hargreaves, but all is revealed; it was a trick question. The question was about the arts centre and had nothing to do with cappuccinoes.Mr Quinlan
: You will have to start again.MR STANHOPE
: That's right. It was really a subtle trick designed to unseat me.Mr Hargreaves
: It was a cunning plot.MR STANHOPE
: It was a cunning plot. The ACT government, through PALM, is working assiduously on a range of planning options for the Belconnen town centre, as I indicated in answer to a question asked of me at the speech I delivered yesterday about the status of the Belconnen town centre and the very noticeable planning mistakes and errors that are a feature of the Belconnen town centre.I think that none of us would deny for a second that the planners who made those initial decisions around the Belconnen town centre-the placement of the Belconnen town centre and its relationship with the lake-foisted a travesty, not just on the people of Belconnen, but on Canberra as a whole. We have been landed with an arrangement at Belconnen that is exceedingly difficult to deal with and impossible to undo.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .