Page 1576 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 2012
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Since the preparation of these strategic plans, the government has got on with the business of developing and implementing more targeted policies to improve our environmental sustainability, including ambitious policies around waste and energy. The government has legislated its greenhouse gas reduction targets with a 40 per cent reduction on 1990 levels by the year 2020, an 80 per cent reduction by 2050 and, of course, zero net emissions by the year 2060. To achieve these later targets we know that we must plan and manage change for our city. We know that we must ensure the layout of our city, and the buildings and infrastructure and its transport system will make it easier to support people to make sustainable choices in the way they live and travel.
We know we must support cultural and behavioural change to make deep cuts in our emissions, and we know that a sustainable city must also be a city that is liveable. It must be highly accessible for everyone—children and the elderly—and it must ensure that everyone can participate in this city’s social and cultural life. It must be a city that is affordable to live in. People must be able to make effective choices about how they defray the cost of buying and running a house and the costs of commuting and of obtaining essential services.
These are issues that Canberra must address, but they are issues faced by all Australian cities. These questions we face include: where do we house a growing population? How do we effectively and efficiently service an expanding urban area? How can we reduce the cost and time spent in commuting? With rising energy costs, how do we assist with this issue? With an ageing population, how will we provide their housing and health needs? What will be the impact of climate change and how can we mitigate against the extremes of heat and storms? These are all issues that planning must directly address.
I believe this Labor government, working with its regional neighbours, is in an excellent position to address these issues and be an example to others. Our metropolitan structure with our town centres and good transport corridors means that we can introduce land use and transport measures to reduce the time and cost of people commuting. Some 72 per cent of Canberrans already live within six kilometres of their district town centre and even less of their neighbourhood centre. The draft planning strategy highlights the importance of Canberra’s town and group centre structure, and the final planning strategy will reinforce the role these centres play. They are pivotal to providing good access to services and encouraging people to participate in the community.
Our transport infrastructure with its system of avenues and parkways allows us to build a more efficient transport system. We can make an efficient system for cars and we can reduce congestion through investment and better and more extensive public transport. Rapid public transport can be introduced on the avenues that connect our town centres. The Y plan that set out these roads was predicated on the introduction of rapid public transport, and the government is now building on this structure.
Introducing areas of higher density along these rapid transport corridors and in our town centres will also create many advantages. It means we can create a more
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