Page 1727 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010

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(A) when construction on the shops will commence;

(B) when will the shops commence trading;

(D) how big (floor-space) the shops will be; and

(E) will there be any indoor space available for community use, for example, hall, meeting rooms, etc;

(iii) has land been allocated for the construction of a childcare facility in Dunlop; and

(iv) what other community facilities will the government deliver, facilitate or support in the suburb; and

(b) work with the owner of the land to facilitate the construction of the shops as quickly as possible.

The issue about the Dunlop shops has been a saga for many years. It has been years since the suburb of Dunlop was gazetted and many years, of course, since the first residents of Dunlop moved in. Of course, they have been waiting for shops in their suburb for a very long time. But, unfortunately, the people of Dunlop are not the only people in the ACT community to be regularly and constantly shafted by the ACT government, by the Jon Stanhope Labor government.

Whether it be poor buses, whether it be poor roads, whether it be the land release strategy, whether it be house prices, whether it be betterment taxes, whether it be the generally misplaced priorities of this government, whether it be school closures or the provision of GPs the people of Canberra, and especially the people of the outer suburbs in Canberra, are regularly shafted by the ACT Labor government.

The saga at Dunlop shops is a classic example of the neglect this Labor Party have shown the people of Belconnen and, in particular, the people of Dunlop, Macgregor and Charnwood. The people of Dunlop have been waiting too long and they have indeed been neglected. My motion does point that out. It is not the ACT government’s responsibility to actually deliver shops in a suburb, but it is their responsibility to facilitate it, and that is something they are certainly not doing. It is also their responsibility to ensure that communities do have a fighting chance of being able to grow up in a friendly neighbourhood, grow up with amenity, and grow up with facilities that are in order and facilities that can support a vibrant neighbourhood. Of course, the ACT government has not done that when it comes to Dunlop.

In fact, there really is nowhere in the suburb of Dunlop where the people can congregate, where the residents can congregate and where they can actually develop a vibrant community centre. This, of course, is not too dissimilar to the suburb of Flynn, which now does not have a vibrant community centre after the closure of the school a few years ago. My motion today is not attacking a developer; quite the opposite. It is

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