Page 1919 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 August 2007
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many years, my family—and I, myself, on rare occasions—have used the pool. My children, in particular, have used those facilities. We are pleased that there is a degree of protection for those facilities afforded within the arrangements.
I am pretty comfortable with the idea of seeing more residential development in that area, but, as Mr Seselja pointed out, it is important to ensure that we have appropriate recreational facilities. I know that it will be a long time before we grow to the size of Manhattan, but when you look at a city like that, where people clamour for a tiny piece of space where they can have a sandwich and that is not taken over by high-rise buildings, there are lessons for modern cities—not to get to the point where you cannot go back. As I indicated, I do not think we are going to have quite that population, but in a mini-community, you can still build out all the available space, and the temptation for a government that has relied so heavily on land sales must always be there. In developing the area, I am anxious to see that we have quality high-rise buildings, not things that are thrown together.
I am not one of those who are generally opposed to development. Indeed, in most cases I encourage it. But in the process there does need to be protection of community assets. In east O’Malley, where there has been substantial development—I know the people involved in the development and I live in that vicinity—I have seen a complete failure to make appropriate traffic planning arrangements to take into account the large numbers of extra people moving into that area. In the past week, my GP’s wife’s car was wiped out trying to get out of there onto Hindmarsh Drive. I have not even had time to respond the email he sent me about it, and there is another one he has reported on. We see a situation—
Mr Barr: There are four other exits.
MR MULCAHY: There is no traffic controlled exit out of O’Malley. Every day people take their lives in their hands and attempt to beat the traffic, with the traffic hammering down Yamba Drive and Hindmarsh Drive.
The point I make is that, if we are going to develop these areas and cash in on the land sales, let us make sure that we take care of the needs of that community and think things through. The best example in this territory is Gungahlin. You just have to ask the people of Gungahlin how important community recreation facilities are—or the lack of them. It is very important that we make sure that community assets are available to residents of Woden. If only the people of Gungahlin were as lucky as the ones in Woden who presently enjoy those facilities! I was in Gungahlin Marketplace at the weekend and people constantly raised the issue; they do not even have a swimming pool up there.
I share the concerns of residents about the loss of other community assets—the bowling green and possibly the basketball courts. The people of Woden do not need or want wall-to-wall buildings, office blocks and so on. The importance of amenities to people cannot be underestimated.
There is room for both development and recreation facilities—to sit alongside. As I have said, I am not by any means against development, but there needs to be some
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