Page 2962 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
We do have a consumption problem here, and we do source our food from all over the planet without a thought. Strawberries in winter—no problems. What else was there? I notice that we have got cherries from North America at the moment. Just imagine the food miles that they have travelled. These are the kinds of things that we have to consider. Canberra as a better city would be embedded in its region. We would be encouraging the introduction of food that is grown in our region. That might mean some changes to our diet, but I tell you what: it is a lot better than not surviving at all.
I notice that Ms Porter had difficulty reading her speech, probably because it had so many figures in it. It is very hard to read out a string of figures and sound fascinating and interesting. But that is what we had and to me spending money actually does not mean a lot at all unless you say what we get from spending that money. What is the big vision there? What vision does this government have for Canberra in 100 years time? Will it still be here? I think that we should make sure that it is because we have got to show that an inland city in Australia can survive and can, in fact, be sustainable. And that is a challenge.
Turning to making a stronger community, I think that our communities would be a lot stronger if we involved them a lot more in decision making about their communities. At the moment we have got disempowered communities who are watching their shopping centres disappear, who have seen their schools disappear and who have watched their bus routes change. I think this has happened twice in the last four years. These are changes over which they feel they have no power. How do you strengthen communities? You give them some power, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker.
I note, again in this wonderful booklet Living in Canberra, which is so informative to you if you live in South Africa, that there is going to be some consultation and focus groups around the new Canberra plan. It is going to be called “Towards our second century”; so perhaps we have got that far-sighted thinking happening there. But isn’t it terrific that the government has just found out there is a problem with community consultation—that there are disempowered communities? So we put out a new plan and give people the opportunity to give feedback and to attend forums and focus groups.
All that will be over before the election, of course. Then what does it matter what we do. Let us hope that sustainability is a big word in this new Canberra plan. I think that “real citizen engagement” was the term used in the latest document on community engagement. Let us hope that we start to empower communities and realise that they have some of the answers.
Many of our keys to sustainability will be through developments that happen at that local level through groups like See-Change, which we have got in Jamieson and Woden now, through CROWK, the Concerned Residents of West Kambah, and through the little neighbourhood community organisations that do all that work. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to give them a 2008 election present by covering their insurance?
I was told just the other day that the biggest impediment to a stronger community is the cost of insurance to community organisations. It was very disappointing to hear
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .