Page 867 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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the last quarter was the same as that of New South Wales and South Australia. The growth was still 0.5 per cent, which is well below the national average, but the national average is distorted enormously by the fact that Queensland is growing at more than twice the national average. If you take Queensland out, the figures change dramatically. Population growth in Queensland was, I think, 2.9 per cent against the national average of 1.2 per cent.
It is interesting that one of the difficulties or other significant distortions in comparing population growth around the nation is that some of us have on our border, or immediately across our border in the case of the ACT, significant areas of growth such as Queanbeyan/Jerrabomberra. For the purposes of population measurement it is difficult, and a distortion, to refer to the population growth within the immediate region. As recently as last week following the regional leaders forum I heard Frank Pangallo, the Mayor of Queanbeyan, when discussing water—this is the first time a mayor of Queanbeyan has ever said this; I do not know whether Frank’s ears have been burning since—say that, for the purposes of this debate and this issue, Queanbeyan/Jerrabomberra should be regarded as a part of Canberra. I had to listen twice to ensure that I was not mishearing him
Frank Pangallo thinks that way in relation to the distribution of water and I think that way in relation to the counting of the population and population growth. To not count Queanbeyan/Jerrabomberra as part of the growth rate of Canberra in a comparison of growth rates across Australia really distorts growth rate figures and comparisons. Sixty-eight per cent of the people who live in Jerrabomberra work in the ACT and 90 per cent of their kids come to school in the ACT. They all use the Canberra Hospital.
Essentially the point made by Frank Pangallo was that when looking at these issues, count Queanbeyan/Jerrabomberra as part of the ACT. So it is not quite fair to say that we are in the doldrums and there is no growth. To the extent to which the population of Gungahlin has now passed 30,000, three of the suburbs in Gungahlin appear in the latest index of urban growth rates as among the fastest growing areas or suburbs in Australia. That is significant in the context of population growth.
There is an issue, though. That is why next week the ACT government, in partnership with 21 private sector organisations across the board, including universities—not quite the private sector—is to launch a major campaign in Sydney in recognition not so much of population, although it is all linked, but of enormous labour force and skills shortages in the ACT. For the first time ever we will be mounting a major foray into Sydney. That is already receiving enormous interest from Sydney and interstate media. That is a direct response to our acknowledgment that, with the booming economy, particularly in the commercial—
MR SPEAKER: Order! The minister’s time has expired.
MRS DUNNE: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Chief Minister, why is it that people are moving to Jerrabomberra and Queanbeyan rather than to the ACT?
MR STANHOPE: I do not think people are moving to Jerrabomberra and Queanbeyan rather than the ACT. I do not think it is fair to suggest that there is a headlong rush. Certainly over the past 15 years Jerrabomberra and Queanbeyan have grown steadily.
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