Page 3468 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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becoming public. We also look forward to the project office sharing information with the public in a proper, open government way—as has not really happened in the past. Whatever eventually happens along the city to Gungahlin transit corridor, the project office will have a vital role in keeping the public informed and, hopefully, supporting and enhancing what should be a very good development.
This is a good opportunity to create a truly cosmopolitan and sustainable community along Northbourne Avenue. The city to Gungahlin project will not just be about the development of mass transit options for Northbourne Avenue and other roads; it will also be about developing these roads and the precincts next to them as places to support a range of human activities, including residences, cultural spaces, shops and services. We need to ensure that these developments are high quality, are sustainably designed and include generous communal spaces to prevent social isolation.
Housing ACT is a substantial landowner along Northbourne Avenue. The Greens want to ensure that we retain the same level of public housing in this precinct, noting that, given the poor condition of much of the current stock, it will probably be beneficial, and possibly essential, to redevelop most of it. This needs to be done sustainably.
A revitalised Northbourne Avenue is a key component in creating a vibrant and sustainable Canberra that can accommodate growth while contributing to the wider ACT goal of a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
The Greens welcome support for some of the business initiatives in the budget. We are pleased that there continues to be half a million dollars of support in the Canberra business development venture capital fund. This provides some support for future diversification of the ACT economy and will assist a range of business proposals which we hope will include the future sustainable industries that the ACT needs.
The Greens note that the business life cycle is complex and that businesses should not and do not rise or fall solely on ACT government funding. Their own activities are the major input into their success, but there also need to be good linkages with ACT and Australian government programs. In this budget the ACT Greens welcome the raising of the threshold for payroll tax, as this will make it easier for Canberra businesses to grow.
The Greens have advocated for the use of remissions of the lease variation charge as an incentive for adaptive reuse of C and D-grade office stock in Civic and other town centres. We are pleased to see this in the budget. This is an example of how we can use economic tools to achieve the sustainable change we need. The Greens have long recognised the value of adapting existing buildings for a range of purposes, including for affordable residences, and we welcome government incentives for reuse of buildings.
The Greens welcome the government’s use of lease variation charge remissions to support developments that achieve carbon savings at least 30 per cent above the current minimum regulatory requirements. We supported the lease variation charge legislation on the basis that these remissions would be an integral part of the package, and we are waiting for transport corridor remissions to be developed.
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