Page 426 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Planning and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (9.16): I thank Mr Smyth for those further questions. Yes, he is correct to observe that work around the Dickson group centre goes back some time. Members would be aware that about three or four years ago some new mixed-use developments in Cape Street—I am thinking of the apartments that have ground floor restaurants and then have apartments above—occurred. I think that was as a result of some of that work. So there has been progress in this area but, more broadly, as I indicated in my previous statement, the government is particularly keen to look at supermarket competition but also to look at the totality of those group centres.
There are a number of proposals. Developers have come and approached government, looking for an indication of what the Assembly’s thinking was on future development opportunities in those group centres. My response, just prior to the election, was that it would be appropriate to undertake some more detailed planning studies in those areas.
Mrs Dunne interjected earlier, “Does that constitute neighbourhood planning?” I believe it does. I think this funding gives us the ability to go and consult further with communities on the Dickson and Kingston group centres, on their particular needs, and to look at what opportunities there might be for, for example, more mixed-use development that does see commercial and residential intensification in those areas.
Subclauses 7(9) and 7(10) agreed to.
Subclauses 7(11) and 7(12).
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (9.18): I refer to line item 11. There is $220,000 for the West Belconnen Community Health Cooperative. We welcome that spending, the $220,000. The question we have is: does that go far enough? Throughout the election campaign we saw a need for greater spending there and pledged, on top of the money that was committed by the government, an additional $200,000. So the question remains: what will not be delivered there? Certainly we welcome this money that is being spent. We see a need that is most urgent in community health and it is good to see that the government is recognising that.
As the shadow minister for health, I note that in this bill there is no money allocated to the department of health. We have heard discussion about cycling. I am certainly pro-cycling, pro-motorsport. It is good to see master plans being developed. When we know the crisis that we have, the urgency and the need that we have in our emergency departments, the need for more GPs and the areas of elective surgery and dangerous levels of bed occupancy, the question, I suppose, I have is: why do we have the money being spent on things that are important, yes, but that appear somewhat less urgent than those critical areas of health? Particularly, in our hospitals and in our community, this is just a drop in the ocean of what needs to be delivered in terms of community health.
I refer to the minister’s statement that this is not the ideal way to do an appropriation bill. It is a shame because I would like to have gone more into the detail of what was being delivered in that area of community health and get a better understanding of it.
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