Page 1730 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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Keith said:
G’day, Mr Stanhope, thanks for taking my call. I understand that Dunlop’s going to be one of the biggest suburbs in Canberra and at the moment it doesn’t have any shops at all and the nearest ones are at Charnwood, and like, they’re a virtual traffic jam trying to get in there sometimes—
which they are, minister. Mr Stanhope said:
Yes, I must say, my understanding is the same as yours, Keith. Though I know there are no shops there, but my understanding is that it was envisioned by our plans at the outset that there wouldn’t be shops and I believe simply that there wouldn’t be a school in Dunlop; that it was always intended that Charnwood would act or operate as a suburban centre for Dunlop along with Charnwood. It’s a group centre there at Charnwood I think that was the decision taken at the time. The state development plans for Dunlop were laid out and agreed and approved. Do you find it a particular inconvenience? There are a number of suburbs that don’t have shops and I think working off the experience of those suburbs that did have a shop, that the shop which wasn’t sufficient because of perhaps the size and shopping centres that have closed; and I think that’s one of the issues that very many suburban shopping centres have struggled; and I think the view is taken that to ensure the viability of shopping centres generally, that we shouldn’t continue to just add them as a matter of course.
Keith: I just thought that seeing as it was going to be one of the bigger suburbs in Canberra, it would just be nice to have like, you know, it would be nice to have its own shops …
Stanhope: I’ll take your number Keith and get back to you.
Jon Stanhope, as of July last year, did not even know that there was a block of land that had been sold in Dunlop for shops. He did not even know it. He did not know that there had been DAs. He did not know that ACTPLA and LDA had held up the development. He did not know that ACTPLA and the LDA had letterboxed the suburb.
This is how out of touch Mr Stanhope and the Labor Party are. It all goes to show the extreme neglect the Labor Party shows the people in our outer suburbs. Being a member for Ginninderra, Belconnen, Nicholls and Hall, I do know and I see so many examples of the extreme neglect that the ACT government shows for the people of those communities.
As I mentioned earlier, whether it be the state of the buses, whether it be the poor roads, the Gungahlin Drive extension, whether it be land release strategies, whether it be the house prices, whether it be the betterment taxes, whether it be the misplaced priority for their budget measures, whether it be the school closures or the provision of support for GPs, this government regularly shows contempt for the people of the outer suburbs in Canberra. My motion today seeks to bring some clarity to the situation. It seeks to deliver some answers for the people of Dunlop, because to date they simply have not had them.
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