Page 2610 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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community at the outset of deliberations and is seeking their input as proposals develop. This is important. This is giving the community the best opportunity to participate and inform planning policy.
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo), by leave: This will be a very brief statement because I was not given the courtesy of a copy of this paper any time in advance. The community gardens one I managed to get about five minutes in advance. I had assumed that the minister was merely going to be reading out the letter he sent last week about delaying the Kambah and Erindale master plans. I think it is unreasonable not to circulate statements in advance so that members can make comments if appropriate.
My general comment is that I am very pleased that the Greens and the Assembly as a whole have managed to push the government to do master plans. A part of our agreement with the Labor Party was to reintroduce neighbourhood plans. The master planning process, while very valuable, is not a 100 per cent substitute for that. There are people out in the suburban areas who are concerned about what is happening to their suburbs, and this is something which we have not managed to really resolve as yet. I suppose I will speak a little bit more about that in a few minutes when we get onto the PABLAB amendments, because I will be talking about consultation in that. I think we have made a step forward with the master plans, but it is only a step forward, not the end.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition), by leave: Firstly, I would like to commend Mr Smyth for driving the process in relation to the Kambah master plan. He has shown himself to be a very worthy and strong advocate for the people of Tuggeranong, the people of Brindabella and, in this case particularly, the people of northern Tuggeranong, most particularly Kambah.
It is unfortunate that we have seen such a lack of action on the Kambah group centre for so long by this government. Kambah Village presents a significant opportunity for the community. We have a situation there where there is great access to transport corridors and where there is a significant amount of space. And we have a suburb in Kambah which is significantly underserviced when it comes to local shops. There is no doubt that a suburb the size of Kambah, which is really the size of three or four ordinary suburbs in Canberra, does not have access to the level of shopping facilities that we would expect for that type of population and for that size of population.
It is important that we get this right. That is why the Canberra Liberals, led by Mr Smyth on this issue, have been so keen to get action for the people of Kambah and for the people of northern Tuggeranong. It is critical that we get this right.
It is unfortunate that the minister again has demonstrated some contempt for the Assembly in not distributing the statement so that we could have the opportunity to absorb it before it is delivered, so I endorse the comments of Ms Le Couteur in that regard.
In relation to the Erindale master plan, the way the government is handling it at the moment is letting the community down. If you go and talk to traders there in Erindale,
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