Page 4983 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
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Griffin’s legacy is not the shape of the lake and Mahony’s legacy is not the drawings on a page. Their legacy is their example—the reminder that we can never be content with what has gone before. And that legacy, that example, that tradition of change, is what we must never lose sight of when we consider developments in the parliamentary triangle and their impacts on the ACT.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (3.36): The parliamentary triangle, of course, does hold a very special place in the hearts of all members, I am sure, here in the Assembly and, indeed, in the hearts of a vast majority of Canberrans. It very much symbolises our city at a national and international level and it also symbolises our country for many people.
As someone who was born and grew up in Canberra and was four years old when our new Parliament House was built, and at the age of three or four, like many school students in the ACT, went to Parliament House and hammered in a nail at Parliament House, thus contributing to the building of the national parliament, I do take a lot of pride in our city and in that part of our city.
Of course, the ongoing discussion about infrastructure, the ongoing discussion about ownership of and responsibility for the parliamentary triangle, is something that is raging very much at the moment, and I think it will continue to rage into the future.
I think that one of the great pieces of infrastructure redevelopment in recent history is, in fact, the upgrade of Anzac Parade. Anzac Parade is being upgraded in three parts, starting last summer and continuing for the next two summers. The first section, which is a section between Anzac Parade and—
Mr Hanson: Limestone.
MR COE: Limestone Avenue; thank you, Mr Hanson. The bitumen between Limestone Avenue and Constitution Avenue, I think, was a roaring success. To upgrade that stretch of road in that time frame was quite an achievement. They have got to juggle Anzac Day on 25 April and Remembrance Day on 11 November, and given that it is very hard to work in winter, due to difficult weather often, they are just working in the summer months. So they have a time frame from 11 November to 25 April to construct the necessary road, so that it does not interfere with those two important ceremonies.
I understand that the next phase of the Anzac Parade upgrade will be starting very soon, if it has not already started today. The work that has been done has been done very well. I think it is testimony to the infrastructure capacity of the National Capital Authority and hopefully is an example of how other roadworks should be done here in the territory. Hopefully, the ACT government will learn from the National Capital Authority’s project management skills, take a leaf out of their book and learn about the way to construct a road properly.
Constitution Avenue is also a road which I think is near and dear to many Canberrans. There are many landmarks which lie along it. In addition to the government offices at
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