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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 3 Hansard (12 March) . . Page.. 955 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

community facilities on the lake, unless you want to have a barbecue. It is difficult to sit by the lake and have a cup of coffee, because of bad planning decisions made in the past.

If Belconnen is the ugly duckling or cinderella town centre, Kippax is the cinderella of Belconnen group centres.

Mr Hargreaves: Pigs!

MRS DUNNE: We have to be frank about our electorate. It is always nice to have a rosy view about our electorate, Mr Hargreaves, but it is also important that we are realistic about the shortcomings. The shortcomings in Kippax are the responsibility of successive governments-not just successive ACT governments but successive Commonwealth governments. I have been involved in politics in the ACT since about 1985. Some of these issues around Kippax and the need for a reassessment of Kippax have been around that long. In the 1994-95 election campaign the issues we are talking about today were the hot issues for the people of West Belconnen.

Mr Corbell is right. Successive governments have neglected West Belconnen and Kippax. I am quite happy to stand up here and take the blame and say that Liberal governments in the past were neglectful, just as Labor governments were. It is not really about looking at the past and saying who was more irresponsible than whom. It is about what is happening now, what the aspirations of the people of Belconnen-the people of West Belconnen in particular-are and what we need to do to address it.

The message we have got from the minister today is: "Don't you worry. We are from the government, and we are here to help you."For years and years the people of Kippax, the people of West Belconnen, have been begging, crying out on bended knee, for some simple planning strategies that they can have some input into.

The clear message we are getting from the Minister for Planning today is that the planners and the people on the interdepartmental committees have the answers. This is not how you do planning in Canberra in 2003. You do not set up an IDC. You do not set up interdepartmental working parties to make it happen. You go out and you find out what the people want.

The people of Kippax, through the Kippax task force, have been telling us for years, and it has been falling on deaf ears. The fact that it has been falling on deaf ears is no indication that we should continue to let it fall on deaf ears. The minister said today, "We will not support a master planning process, because we already have all the answers, and we are just about to tell you what they are."If the minister is going to tell them what they are, why can he not tell us what they are today? We are here today debating the needs of the people of West Belconnen, and this minister says, "We are about to announce it soon."What better time to do it than today in this debate?

If the minister thinks that there is a better way of doing it, why does he not move an amendment to this motion so that we can debate it and at the end of the day possibly come out of this with something substantial for the people of Belconnen, rather than just a fight across the floor. If we are really concerned about the people of Belconnen, why can we not be constructive and consult with the elected members from Belconnen here in this place and with the wider West Belconnen community?

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