Page 6136 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, for the past two years the ACT economy has been consistently rated as the strongest or near the strongest in Australia. This ranking is no accident; it is the result of good economic management. The ACT government exercises strong financial management, making gradual and sustained adjustments to expenditure, making savings where appropriate and preserving and enhancing the priority services which Canberrans want and need.
Investment in our city has been a hallmark of this government, and this investment has hit new heights over the past two years. The centrepiece of the 2008-09 budget was a $1 billion building the future program of investment in territory infrastructure. The 2009-10 budget built on and enhanced the program with an additional $274 million for new capital projects.
The past two years have been busy ones for the tourism industry. Campaigns have included culture shock, wrapt in winter, Floriade spring, and see yourself in the nation’s capital. The ACT government partnered with the National Gallery on the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition from the Musee d’Orsay. Total visitor numbers exceeded 473,000, with 80 per cent of visitors coming from interstate and with an estimated economic benefit to the territory of $95.2 million.
The government is determined to see that this great city remains great and that it responds to the challenges the future will bring without losing or compromising the things Canberrans cherish about their town. The Canberra 2030 conversation, time to talk, was designed to identify those things Canberrans love about the city and the compromises we will need to make and the opportunities we will face as the century progresses.
During the project thousands of people provided their views. There were 1,800 website-registered visitors, 15,000 website page visits, 60,000 website page views, 1,028 ideas submitted, 22,000 ideas liked, 12,000 ideas disliked, 1,344 online surveys completed, 1,160 telephone surveys, 364 postcard ideas returned, 520 community workshop participants and 230 expert forum attendees. The ideas and feedback from the conversation will help inform policy making over the remainder of this term and beyond and will build on the work that we have done over the first half of the term to deliver a more vibrant city and great neighbourhoods.
In relation to housing and land supply, the achievements are: in 2008-09, 4,339 dwelling sites released; in 2009-10 a further 4,279; and the delivery of affordable housing options, such as 247 homes under OwnPlace, over 500 land rent blocks and an increase from 15 to 20 per cent in the proportion of new estates dedicated to house and land packages priced at under $328,000. There have been shopping centre upgrades, each valued at more than $1 million, at Garran, Deakin and Ainslie, and community consultation sessions have been held or continue in relation to similar upgrades at Scullin, Deakin, Farrer, Lyons, Red Hill, Waramanga, Ainslie and Holt.
Labor took to the 2008 election a vision of a city that would not only be the nation’s capital but a solar capital, a city that took seriously its obligations on some of the big sustainability issues we confront. Progress towards the creation of a truly sustainable city has been progressed during the past two years on many fronts.
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