Page 4978 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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owners or some of the church leaders, all they are asking for is some consideration about getting it right for the future.
All the community of Calwell and southern Tuggeranong ask for is a pretty simple approach in concept, but it has not been followed in respect of the Calwell retail and commercial precinct. That is why the local community is upset. As with many other regional centres across the ACT, the Calwell centre in the scheme of things is relatively small. But it is a significant retail and commercial centre for that neighbourhood. It is evident that there are growing pains within this precinct, however, as the demand for such activities as medical and associated services continues to grow.
I propose that a proper master planning project be undertaken for the Calwell centre, a master plan that takes account of the current and prospective retail and commercial activities planned for the precinct, a master planning project that recognises the growing significance of this precinct to southern Tuggeranong and the wider region.
I say the wider region because at some of the meetings we have had members of the Cooma council there. For the shire council and for a lot of Cooma residents, this might be somewhere where they park the car and catch a bus or it might be their last port of call on the way home, as some people do commute daily from Cooma, where they might do the shopping. So there is a regional significance here as well. A master planning project which facilitates the potential for this precinct to become a vibrant area in southern Tuggeranong for retail, commercial, community and other activities is what the people of this area want.
Once a master plan has been prepared, it will be possible to consider the proposal for aged-care facilities and any other activities in a reasoned way, in a way which provides the community with the best outcomes, not the short-term outcome or simply the financial outcome that the government seeks through the sale of a block of land.
In this context, I can tell the Assembly that the Calwell centre has been approached, for instance, to incorporate dentist rooms, but currently there is no room. The shopping centre is full. Southern Tuggeranong does not have a dentist and the Calwell community centre does not currently have the capacity to incorporate a dental surgery.
It also should be noted that the Minister for Community Services is seeking to encourage an increase in childcare places across the ACT. The Calwell centre could incorporate a capacity for either some additional childcare places in the existing facility or perhaps a second childcare centre. Some current businesses have expressed interest in doing so, but again there is no room at the centre for such a facility at this point.
That brings me to the crux of my motion. We have a situation where a block of land, namely, section 790 block 5 in Calwell, is currently being offered for sale by tender for an aged-care facility in a context where there is community concern about such a facility in the absence of a master plan—understanding the need for aged-care facilities at the same time.
Hence, my motion calls on the government to postpone the process for tendering for an aged-care facility in the Calwell precinct and for the government to commit to
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