Page 2849 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 August 2005
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we also need to recognise that any proposals are not going to be realised in a short space of time. Nor should they be confined solely to the planning and design concepts. It is also critical to understand the benefits and opportunity costs to the community, the capacity of the office, retail and other commercial property markets to absorb the scale of development and its potential effects on other centres in Canberra—our town centres, our group centres and so on.
To adequately understand and address these issues needs real community and industry input. So the government reviewed the composition of the Canberra central task force earlier this year and put together a team of people with a strong level of recognised industry and community expertise as well as planning expertise to work on the issue. The task force was formed a few months ago and includes representation from the National Capital Authority, which is extremely important given their statutory role in the city centre. It is worth outlining the range of responsibilities the task force has. It has some specific terms of reference that must be addressed by the end of this month. These include:
• providing advice to me, as the minister, so that I can advise cabinet on the most appropriate planning and design outcomes for the future development of City Hill and its surrounds, including the clarification of key principles and issues and an outline of the context for development;
• the delivery vehicle that is best suited to the planning and design outcome, taking account of those issues;
• the financing options available to the government, taking account of the previous issues;
• an assessment of all concepts and any other relevant issues that may arise from the public consultation process; and
• the monitoring and receiving of progress reports on the current program being undertaken by the Canberra central project team to rejuvenate the city centre.
It is worth highlighting that one of my first requests to the chair of the task force, Mr Service, and to his colleagues on the task force was to engage as broadly as possible in seeking community and individual views on issues to do with the development of the city centre. The task force has gone out of its way to reach out and seek comments from ACTCOSS; from other community organisations located in the city; from other business organisations; from people with disabilities; from a range of sectors, a range of interest groups, a range of individuals who are all potentially affected by any decisions that are made on the city centre. So this task force is doing that work. It is meeting weekly and has a high level of engagement and participation by those who have been appointed to it and, indeed, by others who have made submissions to it.
It is worth outlining some of the expertise and experience we have on the task force. Of course, it is chaired by Mr Jim Service, who is a well-known and respected Canberran, with extensive experience in the commercial property and banking sectors. It has on it people such as: Mr John Hanna, a well-known city retailer; Mr Colin Stewart, who was the developer of the Snow proposal; Ms Tania Parkes, a very well-known, local Canberran, with excellent interest in and understanding of the community sector, as well as having strong skills as a social planner; Trevor Reddacliffe, an internationally respected architect and planner; Susan Holiday, again a very well-respected national planner and a former head of the Department of Planning in New South Wales; Mr Ross
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