Page 4601 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 19 October 2011
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industry. Mr Barr might like to play the sort of class warfare issue where he is happy to attack the property industry, but the reality is, like it or not, the property industry is a very important employer in this territory, it is a very important part of our economy, and any responsible government, any responsible Treasurer, would recognise that and would take that into consideration in making decisions such as this.
But I do want to touch on recent events in relation to this, because we know that this government are committed to this project. They are committed to it, and I will talk through how they are expressing that commitment in different ways at the moment. But they are committed to this project.
I found it interesting to read the comments recently from the new chief planner. The new chief planner had some interesting things to say. I am not sure whether Ms Le Couteur has had the opportunity to read it in the Chronicle. It is interesting, the case that he made. And let us listen to it. This is in last week’s Chronicle. This is what the chief planner had to say:
“Five townships is a good idea and we should stick with it and make it work …
“There is a basic planning tenet that is you should try and create an environment where people can work where they live …”
That is a good idea. I continue:
“And to get [them to consider] decentralisation of government departments is like getting blood from a stone, and it is the same in every city …”
He is really expressing some frustration at the government’s failure to decentralise its departments. He is expressing the principle that actually the ACT and Canberra was founded on, that we would have town centres, that each of those town centres would be vibrant and that the government plays a significant role in helping those town centres to grow. It does so in part by where it puts its government offices. He goes on to say, and this is most interesting:
“While we are looking at moving some ACT Government departments to Gungahlin, we need to have bigger thinking. The Department of Climate and Efficiency should not be in Civic, it should be in one of the town centres. It should be a living, breathing example of climate change sustainability, not another energy-sapping building in the centre of the city.”
The chief planner is of course talking about the federal government but if it is good enough for the federal government’s department of climate change to be in the town centres, surely it is good enough for the ACT department of climate change to be in the town centres. Surely it is good enough for ACT public servants to be working in the town centres.
If the government goes ahead with this $430 million office block in the centre of the city, we will get a few results. One of those results is that the people of the ACT will have the biggest capital project spend ever on an office block instead of on the things that they need and that they want. It will come at the expense of things like their roads,
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