Page 244 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 15 February 2012
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I am pleased with the interest in this motion. The Greens have some amendments that look like praising the Greens and all the things that the Greens have done. Mr Corbell of course has the standard government line: we did it all. But people will remember that Mr Corbell as planning minister resisted any master plan for the Tuggeranong town centre and Erindale, saying that they were not required, that the centres were not old enough and therefore you had to compound your mistakes before it could get better. But I will give Mr Barr his due: Mr Barr saw that it was reasonable to do it, and I think everybody is grateful. Ms Bresnan moved the motion; well done to her. But it is interesting that that politic had to happen before the people of Tuggeranong got the service that they required and that they deserved.
The motion also looks at some of the surrounding areas, because they do have impacts on Tuggeranong and on how Tuggeranong residents see themselves. It notes the significance of the village of Tharwa to the overall planning of Tuggeranong. We have had the travails of poor Tharwa: the bridge, the closing of the school and the closing of the preschool, the damage done to the area through the fire and ongoing concerns about Cuppacumbalong. Tharwa is important. It is an area close to particularly southern Tuggeranong and it has got enormous tourist potential and recreational values which are an addition to Tuggeranong. The motion also notes the proximity of Hume and how the planning of Hume will impact particularly on that eastern side of Tuggeranong. It is an important place for employment if you are a Tuggeranong resident; it is quite close and we need to get that access to Hume right.
What the motion does is to call on the government to coordinate all the planning activities that are required, to make sure that we do get the best out of Tuggeranong. It is interesting how the master plans for Erindale and Tuggeranong town centres have come together to say, “Yes, we all understand how Tuggeranong developed and grew but here is an answer to address some of that.”
The motion calls on the government to implement appropriate maintenance programs as a matter of urgency for Lake Tuggeranong, and I acknowledge that the Tuggeranong Community Council has now set up the lake as their area for Clean Up Australia on the first weekend in March. I have got a site set up for Tuggeranong town park so there will be a bit of a crossover there and that is a good thing too.
We want to see plans to mitigate the amount of rubbish which enters Lake Tuggeranong, given that we do have a changing pattern. Tuggeranong is often colder, hotter, drier and wetter than elsewhere. It rained here in Civic yesterday but we had got virtually none when I got home to Tuggeranong; I think we had one millilitre on my weather gauge. So with some of the climatic patterns perhaps we need to reassess the gross pollutant traps that are intended to stop the debris from getting into the lake. If they are not working, perhaps it is time to reassess. Again, that is a request for the government to look at what does happen. Is what is in place appropriate given the changes that have occurred? Of particular interest to some of the water groups is to make sure that we have got plans in place to manage the run-off of water into Lake Tuggeranong and the Murrumbidgee River. They are all very important things.
When you look at how Tuggeranong has been treated, the community has been treated with disdain over quite significant matters, such as the proposal for the gas-fired
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