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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3737 ..

Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (4.39): It is the case that Mr Cornwell said that Canberra is looking like a Third World country, and that bit of hyperbole puts into context the speech as a whole. Canberra does not look like a Third World country and never has. It does not even go close to it. To make this sort of claim suggests that this is more a bit of a beat-up to fill some time of this Assembly.

I do drive around with my eyes open—as Minister for Urban Services, as minister responsible for roads, footpaths and the like—and I pay close attention to what I see around. I think the city looks as fine now as it ever has. The city looks good, and all the comments I get tell me that.

DUS has the responsibility of looking after the built environment: the roads and the public buildings, as well as some 5,000 hectares of urban parkland, ranging from town and district parks to road verges and semi-natural open space. The standard of care of all aspects of Canberra—the hard surfaces and the natural surfaces—is comparable to the standard of care anywhere. Our community, when we assess what it says, reports high levels of satisfaction. Canberra Urban Parks and Places does an annual consumer customer satisfaction survey.

Since 1999, the level of visitor satisfaction with the experience provided in our parks has risen from 89 per cent to 96 per cent. That is a pretty solid performance. Interviews with visitors to these parks identified them as well presented, attractively presented and clean and well maintained. That is a significant achievement, considering that almost eight million people have visited them in the last year.

Another key finding from the survey—this is accurate data; this is not somebody’s hyperbole—is a positive trend in satisfaction with the general cleaning and maintenance of open space facilities. That includes road verges and areas surrounding major roads, laneways, underpasses, dryland and irrigated grass areas, bus shelters, playgrounds and toilet blocks in parks and suburban shopping centres.

The general level of satisfaction has been mentioned. They are verified findings. The community, mind you, is also doing its bit to help. Currently, over 50 businesses and community groups are involved in adopt-a-road activities, and they will soon be recommencing their activities to reduce the amount of litter along our major roads, after a brief suspension, now that insurance issues have been resolved.

The government has been active in managing graffiti across the city, and I acknowledge that it takes a fair bit to keep up with it, but I think we are on top of it. Graffiti with offensive words, images and messages must be removed within 24 hours of notification, and in all other cases graffiti is removed within three working days. We are currently finalising a new management strategy that takes a holistic approach. It contains five elements and seeks to strike a balance between prevention, removal, diversion, awareness, education and legislation. I expect that this strategy will reduce the cost of graffiti removal. It has undergone detailed consultation, and the final strategy will be released shortly.

Mr Cornwell, I agree with your comments; we are not talking about the drought. The city is certainly looking dry, and we understand that. Our parks are feeling that issue, but they remain tidy and in general good condition. It is strange that you mentioned the drought.

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