Page 3682 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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What this does lead to is that this report has come up with a series of recommendations about how they might be able to move forward, to ensure that there are proper governance processes in place and that there is financial accountability. Earlier we heard the Chief Minister talk about the consultation that will be going on with the community—a conversation that really needs to take place. We do have ageing infrastructure. We are going to have a massive issue with our urban forest over the next 20 to 25 years and beyond.
These are just some of the major issues we face. Therefore it is important to engage the community in these conversations around the level of delivery, their expectations and how they believe that this department could move forward to deliver these important services in a way that is going to meet some community expectation but at the same time keep within some sort of budgetary envelope.
One of the things I wanted to point to as well was this. Mr Smyth was going on about the Greens not supporting “reveals that political influence”. There are 22 recommendations in this report. We are not going to pull out one of them. What we are saying is that we do agree with the part of the motion that says that we would like to see, and call on the government to table, a progress report on this strategic budget review. We look forward to seeing that report so that we are assured that there are changes being made within the department and that these recommendations are being moved on. That is an incredibly important thing—for the Assembly to be able to keep on top of what is going on with the implementation of these findings.
They were some of the points that I wanted to raise. It is important to understand that if we are going to have a city that is going to continue to grow and that is going to continue to spread out across the territory to make a larger city—one of the issues that was raised in the report was around Canberra’s urban footprint—this is going to have a big impact on the costs of maintaining those extra roads, footpaths, playgrounds, parks and so forth. That is another part of that conversation that needs to be had with the community.
Once again, just to reiterate it, the Greens will be supporting the government’s amendments to this motion.
Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Sitting suspended from 12.30 to 2 pm.
Questions without notice
Housing—first home owners
MR SESELJA: My question is to the Chief Minister and relates to the direct grant of residential land in May of this year. Chief Minister, your press release at the time of the grant said:
No other method of land release would see housing blocks delivered to consumers in a more timely manner—an important factor at a time when we
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