Page 69 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 27 November 2012
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will not only support the light rail project but also involves the entrance to our city, and the opportunities for transformation to occur on that corridor are real.
We are progressing to meet our renewable energy targets, as was mentioned by Mr Seselja, through the work that we have done in action plan 2. We are continuing to work on planning around infrastructure, building on the big projects in health and in education—making sure that we have great schools and a good health system. Importantly, we are improving, and continuing to improve, our public transport system.
With respect to looking at the health of our urban lakes and catchment management—our water catchments and a management strategy around that—I refer to some of the good work that has been done by Minister Corbell in terms of securing a very good outcome for Canberra under the Murray-Darling Basin plan. Again, this will provide significant ongoing and future benefits for generations to come.
Of course, the centenary gives us a great opportunity to reposition Canberra in the minds of perhaps not those of us who already deeply love this city and are attached to it but that of visitors and potential investors who will come to see what a wonderful city Canberra has grown into, and 2013 gives us a great opportunity for that.
One of the other priorities is improving our regional partnerships. I started work on this in the last term. I plan to continue to put a lot of effort into this over the next four years. We have started the work with New South Wales and with the local councils, and I look forward to continuing that. There is a great future for Canberra as the real heart of the region in terms of looking at where we can potentially make savings and also where we can offer services to surrounding councils as part of the work that we do.
We have also put a lot of effort into the smart city, looking at how we can further develop the education sector. I am not sure who is responsible for higher education in the opposition—Mr Doszpot. I look forward to working with you on making sure that we truly become one of the top education destinations in the world. We probably already are in Australia. Again, there is enormous room to improve there, and to reduce some of our dependence on the commonwealth government. We have a big agenda in terms of digitising the city. Again, that work will position us well for the future.
The other area we will continue to work in is the way we provide services. With respect to some of the work I have started in open government, we will continue with that, and some of the work that the Treasurer is doing about reducing red tape. So it is a busy four years ahead. (Time expired.)
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Chief Minister, what benefits can the community expect from these policies?
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