Page 3909 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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would have freed up at least $21 million. I understand that is the estimate, but I suspect it is a whole lot more than that. If you want to go through the list, as Mr Seselja pointed out, there is the busway at $5 million, FireLink at $5 million, the arboretum is now pushing $50 million worth of construction that has been appropriated it and budgeted for—
Mr Barr: What a fantastic tourism incentive and economic diversifier the arboretum is going to be.
MR SMYTH: Well, yes, that is true. I hear what you are saying. But you asked where the money would come from. At the end of the day, we are here to look after where people live first and foremost and build up. We will not be supporting the Chief Minister’s amendment. He said ACT government investment included addressing access needs for the disabled, elderly, young children and families. I am happy to take anybody for a walk through Kambah one wet and rainy night and see how disabled, elderly, young children and family friendly it is. If you want to go down, we will have a look at the signs. Planting low maintenance vegetation was a good move. As to vehicle movements, it is an interesting car park. It is quite a large car park, it has got a lot of space there.
As to revitalising the internal shopping centre courtyard through replacement of the existing pavement, lighting, street furniture and play equipment, the paving is lousy, the lighting is probably okay, the street furniture, because of the dropping of the sap, looks very tired, very worn and probably needs a good coat of shellac or replacement, and, of course, we have got the sheep. The sheep are ageing very well. When you have stainless steel sheep, they do age well.
Paragraph (2) of the amendment is where the Chief Minister says, “We want to look at opportunities that will come from land release and development opportunities, current physical design, car park access and circulation issues, a new ‘front door’, improved weather protection and parking capacity requirements”. It strikes me that a lot of the work has been done. With a little bit of foresight, more could have been done in the same design brief, and that is what we are asking for here.
I have outlined to you the area that I think needs to be looked at. You know the area; you know what the interplay is. You know how important Kambah is to the Burns Club and the Burns Club to Kambah. We know how the service station across the road affects the village. We know that beyond Kett Street we have got the Anglican church and APUs. We know there are more units going in on Kett Street. We know that the ovals provide a lot of amenity to the people of not just Kambah but to everybody in the region.
For those reasons it is important that we do a master plan, that it is done quickly, and that the work that has been done is not wasted or compromised or delivers a lesser yield than it should in terms of amenity, economic activity and return to the government for the sale of any land that might come from it.
Amendment negatived.
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