Page 1058 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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a child off at school and another at childcare and then you have to go into the city—you might have an appointment or two on the way and you have got to go via the shops on the way home after picking up your kids—try doing that on an ACTION bus.
The fact is that the vast majority of Canberrans have to drive. It is for that reason that 17 members of this place usually drive their cars to this place, in spite of the fact that we are right next to a bus interchange. We have got four Greens who drive in. Every now and again you might see one of them on their bike—and good on them for doing that—but it is a reality that to use public transport as the sole means of transport in this city is tough, unless you happen to live next to an expresso route or you happen to live next to a town centre. That is just a reality. We have to accept that. If we do not approach these issues with a premise of reality then we are going to be spending good money after bad. That is not to say that we give up on public transport, but we need to come at this issue with the premise that the vast majority of people need their cars to survive in this city.
I commend Mrs Dunne for the superb work she does as a local member but also as someone who understands that the delivery of roads infrastructure is something which should be done by a local administration such as the ACT government. She knows this is core business for a local government. She knows that the ACT Labor government have been negligent in their delivery of infrastructure or their lack thereof. Once again, I commend Mrs Dunne for this superb motion.
Amendments agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
Pace Farm—battery hens
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (4.36): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) that Parkwood Farm is a cage-egg production and egg grading facility located in West Belconnen owned by Pace Farm, which is the largest egg producer in Australia;
(b) that Parkwood Farm is a key element of the Pace Farm business, with up to 200 000 chickens on site;
(c) that the Parkwood Farm acts as a sorting and packaging depot for a number of farms in surrounding New South Wales;
(d) that Parkwood Farm is a major contributor to Canberra’s agricultural sector and employment, with a current workforce of around 60 people;
(e) the important economic contribution Parkwood Farm makes to the ACT economy, generating an estimated $3 million in economic activity;
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