Page 290 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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accommodate street festivals, high levels of pedestrian lighting and striking new public artwork to really highlight the street.
I would like to talk a little bit about the public art on Childers Street. It consists of light sculptures and coloured awnings along 200 metres of Childers Street, designed around a term called synaesthesia, which is a phenomenon where the human senses overlap. The work uses a blending of sight and hearing, with the musical score of Percy Grainger’s The Walking Song transcribed in the coloured glass canopies. If members have not seen the new artwork I would encourage them to go and have a look, especially at night time which is when they are most effective.
Other features of the stage one public works include outdoor spaces that will encourage cafes, restaurants, festivals and special events; the creation of more pedestrian-friendly areas that reduce traffic speed—this is truly a mixed use street; it encourages vehicular movement but also pedestrian and cyclist movement in a very safe way and creates a really genuinely shared space—and a whole range of new street furniture, including benches, bins, bollards, bike racks and light poles that will set the standard for other public works across the city as we continue with upgrades of public spaces in other parts of Canberra central.
Finally, I have to acknowledge the people involved—all local companies—in particular local firm GHD Pty Ltd, which designed and documented the project; Thylacine art projects, based in Queanbeyan; and Urban Contractors Pty Ltd, a notable local urban development firm. (Time expired.)
Mr Stanhope: Mr Speaker, I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.
Supplementary answers to questions without notice
Emergency Services Authority—management
MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, I wish to provide a further answer to a question that Mr Pratt asked of me in question time yesterday. In question time yesterday, Mr Pratt raised his concerns about my seeming inability to meet with the ESA commissioner because, according to Mr Pratt, of all the layers of bureaucracy that exist between the commissioner and me. I undertook to provide to Mr Pratt further information on how often I have met with the commissioner in the last six months.
I am pleased to advise Mr Pratt and members that, since 25 September last year, I have met with the commissioner on 15 separate occasions. In addition, I have met three times with the chief officer of the RFS, two times with the chief officer of the fire brigade, three times with the chief officer of the ACT Ambulance Service and three times with the chief officer of the SES. In total, that is 26 times in the past six months with either the commissioner or one of the chief officers of the ESA. I look forward to Mr Pratt’s retraction of the statement that the commissioner and the chief officers of the ESA are unable to meet with me, but I am not going to hold my breath.
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