Page 507 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 February 2013
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something from the arboretum opening the other night when David Marshall, the MC, got up and Mr Barr was sitting at the table just there in front of Mr Marshall. As you would all know, Dave Marshall is a bit funny and in his introduction he said, “Andrew Barr told me that from here up at the hill at the arboretum you can see the lights of Manuka.” He then went on to say that, of course, Craig Thomson said you could see the lights of Fyshwick. That brought a bit of a chuckle from those in the crowd.
Those developments will go on and hopefully we will see more and more developments go on. It is about making sure that we have got the infrastructure. Governments of both inclinations have been involved in the development of these facilities. It is about getting it right and it is about getting it complete. Perhaps I will put a question on notice about the occupancy rate of the 7,500 legal car parks within one kilometre of Manuka Oval at 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon because I reckon they would be pretty full. To say they are there—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR SMYTH: The minister shakes his head. No, they are not? The minister or maybe one of the others said, “Go and park at the Manuka Pool.” I do not know if you have been down to the Manuka Pool but most of the time it is full. There is not very much parking there because, oddly enough, it is right at the back of Manuka Oval. It is a bit daft to say, “Go park at the Manuka Pool.” You have got to go to a place where there is adequate parking. I think it is unfortunate, in their urge to only compliment themselves, that they do not look at the reality of what goes on at Manuka. Manuka would probably be one of the most difficult places in Canberra to park, certainly on a weekday. Even on the weekends Manuka can be incredibly busy, whether it be people going to the theatre, to church—there are various churches in the local area—or whether they are out restauranting at night or shopping during the day. It would be interesting to see some of those occupancy rates there as well. One of the things that the traders often complain about at Manuka is the lack of parking.
While we all have a desire to see more people use public transport, the reality is it does not always meet your needs. Take, for instance, the international last week. It started at, what, 2.20 in the afternoon? What if you had been to work? Perhaps you worked in Civic or Belconnen. What if you lived in Tuggeranong and you worked in Belconnen? You drove the car and you parked. You did the right thing. You got a bus to Manuka and you got a bus from Manuka back to Belconnen. You then got in your car to go back to Tuggeranong. It has got to be sensible. What I am hearing now is not sensible; it is just “no”. We heard it in estimates. We saw it in the estimates report where we tried to negotiate a sensible outcome. We have a Greens-Labor alliance, the most extreme alliance in the country, who simply say no. They say no to everything that does not comply with what they think is right.
What Mr Doszpot is doing here—and he is to be congratulated—is calling on the government to develop a parking management plan for the Manuka precinct for future games that takes into consideration the need for short-term temporary parking for a large number of cars at major events, recognising that not everyone can or wants to avail themselves of public transport. I think that is reasonable. It is not just the large-scale events at the oval. The Manuka-Kingston area is very busy. Many people
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