Page 105 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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that is part of the reason the Gungahlin Community Council has been outspoken on this issue.
The Gungahlin residents are treated as second-class citizens by the ACT Labor government. There is no doubt about it. We have seen the emails coming in and they list some of the ways in which they have been mistreated or the planning outcomes have been less than optimal for the people of Gungahlin. It is worth reflecting on an email that I received and I know a number of members, including Mr Barr, received. I think all members received this. This resident wrote to Assembly members in quite a detailed email, talking about the cases in point of how Gungahlin is treated poorly by this government.
It is interesting that the first dot point is “Gungahlin Drive extension—I don’t believe I need to comment on this.” He does not, because Gungahlin Drive extension has become synonymous with the mistreatment of the people of Gungahlin and, indeed, large parts of Belconnen by this ACT Labor government. It has become synonymous with poor planning. It has become synonymous with short-term decision making aimed at saving a few bucks in the short term and costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in the long term.
The list goes on. The GDE is I believe the iconic example of how the ACT Labor government views Gungahlin, how it treats the residents of Gungahlin. This debacle and its treatment of the issue of Well Station Drive are simply the latest in a long line of failures in relation to Gungahlin. We have seen the pattern of distain; we have seen it on the GDE; we have seen it in relation to the swimming pool that gets promised every election by the Labor Party; we have seen it in relation to government offices; we have seen it in relation to sporting facilities; we have seen it in relation to the shopfront.
This is an ACT Labor government that sees that it does not need to deliver the level of services to the people of Gungahlin that they deserve. It simply has not delivered and continues not to deliver the level of services that we would expect for all Canberrans, but we are not seeing them in so many cases delivered to the people of Gungahlin.
It is also worth commenting on the way that the Greens have treated the community on this issue. I think they gave the impression that they were all gung-ho on this issue, that they were going to stand up for the residents in Gungahlin. It is interesting, I suppose, to note the difference in approach, depending on where the road is. We saw the absolute desperation from the Greens in relation to things like Monash Drive, to get that out of the national capital plan lest there be a road going near residents.
But when it comes to residents in Gungahlin, the Greens do not have the same view. That has become very apparent through this process. They have sold them out. It is worth putting on the record some of what Alan Kerlin has had to say on the issue and some of the other correspondence we have had in relation to it. Mr Kerlin says:
Residents at the south-eastern section of Harrison, in the Well Station development, have been lobbying for more than a year and a half to have the eastern end of the planned road realigned to skirt around to the east of a small hill rather than to the west of it, as ACTPLA currently plans to do.
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