Page 2415 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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and a bit related to matters that are handled by the Department of Territory and Municipal Services.
As a member for Molonglo, I receive many complaints from Molonglo residents about infrastructure problems such as cracked footpaths, broken streetlights and other faulty or worn-down amenities. That is a particular issue in those areas where there are older residents, and particularly it is an issue in established areas. I have heard the Chief Minister, when we were talking about water, being somewhat derisive of people in Red Hill and Forrest. The fact is that there are a number of older people there. It is hard to see your way around there at night because of shrubbery and the like.
Mr Hargreaves: Because the Knights of Ni jump out.
MR MULCAHY: There have been a lot of complaints about the footpaths over there. The minister thinks it is a humorous issue. But when an older person is trying to make their way down to Manuka and they fall and break a hip and they have got to deal with Ms Gallagher’s elective surgery waiting times to get a hip replacement, it is not so funny for those people.
I have been on that issue since I got elected and I will persist with that issue until we get it at a standard where the complaints drop. The fact is that more than one in three of every complaint I receive relates to these matters of urban infrastructure. I acknowledge that the minister promptly responds and tries to fix them, but I suspect one of the problems is that he has got so much money to play with and that is what they will give him, and what he cannot do he cannot do. My concern is that if we can spend a million bucks on a piece of art on Northbourne Avenue, I would be a lot more impressed by the $1 million going to some of these older areas, fixing up our electorate and satisfying the concerns of constituents. One thing people say is that we cannot even run a municipality properly, so why do we get into all this other peripheral stuff in the ACT and try to solve the problems of the Western world?
In dealing with these problems it is important for the government to bear in mind that some areas of Canberra are not as new as others. That is why I emphasise the importance of the inner areas and the older suburbs where things have started to decay. I know some work has been undertaken up Turner and some other inner northern suburbs, but I appeal to the minister to try to give greater priority to these areas on the south side where I still receive a number of complaints.
It is also worthy of mention that because of the pattern of property values in Canberra these same residents of the inner suburbs in the south bear the larger share of the tax burden through higher rates and charges. I would like to ensure that these people are also getting some value for their tax dollars. I do not say for a moment that they are getting anywhere near the value for money under this government through all its range of taxes, but the department needs to be aware of these particular circumstances and particularly the infrastructure in older suburbs.
I will finish off on a couple of other key areas. Library closures was a major issue this year, and the level of distress amongst people in the Griffith area and Narrabundah over the decision to close that library was one of the most vigorously pursued issues that I have seen since I have been in this place and it was clearly not reflective of the
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