Page 3908 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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already there, some of which are okay, some of which are dying and some of which are dead—and if you were to come up with a proper retail plan and services plan for Kambah then that would be a good outcome.
This is the folly of the Chief Minister’s amendment: we are going to do some of the work to achieve some of the outcome to advantage some of the retailers, but we will get back to the rest in 10 or 20 years from now. That strikes me as sheer folly and very poor expenditure of taxpayers’ money. Here we are: the Queen, the law and the people—the people’s money. That is what we are talking about, and we are talking about the people that live in Kambah and who want something better. Why should one of the local retailers have to clear the drains and the gutters when it rains because whatever is there is not working? Given that the paving is now shifting, why should elderly Kambah residents and those that visit these shops be at risk?
The government is doing a planning and design study to look at what might happen around Woolies and other retailing commercial activities in Kambah. If that is enlarged to encompass “Kitt” street and the service station precinct—
Mr Barr: Do you mean “Kett”?
MR SMYTH: “Kett”, “Kitt”; it depends on how you spell it—depends on how you pronounce it.
Mr Barr: I thought it was K-e-t-t.
MR SMYTH: Well, maybe it is the Celtic. Yes, “Kett” street, “Kitt” street; I don’t care, “Kett” street, call it “Kett” street. But it strikes me that most of this work is being done. If you want to take into account the supermarket policy, does it mean that just Woolworths gets enlarged? What else might go into that area? There are questions there.
The Chief Minister and Mr Barr talked about extra commercial or retail activity. You are talking about a fairly large study there, so let us get it right. Let us talk about the road linkages and the car parking. Is there room for a park and ride? Can we improve security? The lighting there is pretty good. You go down there, particularly on a rainy night, the lighting is probably the best in one of the local shopping centres that you will find anywhere south of the lake. Let us keep it that way. But if you go across to Kett Street, it is not as good, and I think we need to look at that.
I do not think it is unreasonable, given that the government would appear to be saying it is doing a fair percentage of the work, to do it for the whole area. It is false economy. What you are saying is: “We’ll do this. We’ll go through the planning process. There’ll probably be a direct grant. There’ll be a construction period. We’ll get a bigger Woolies. We might get some more shops, and then we’ll come back five, ten years later and do it all again.” That is reminiscent of the approach to GDE.
The duplication of the GDE is going to cost a lot more money than having built it all at one time would have cost. If the Chief Minister wants a source of funds for planning these other centres, had the GDE been done properly in the first place, that
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