Page 1008 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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In 1927 we saw the opening of a cinema in Manuka. In 2013 we have seen the opening of another in New Acton. Cafes, restaurants and bars spring up regularly across the city, and our diverse community continues to expand their entertainment options. Live music can be found in some of the most unthought-of places. I would hope to see a Canberra in 100 years that has vibrant local communities flourishing around local shopping centres—not just retail spaces, but meeting places, places where local neighbourhoods come together to celebrate. I think that the parties at the shops that were held last week in Canberra give some indication of the desire people have to engage locally and to share good times with their local community.
In his design for Canberra in 1911, Walter Burley Griffin embedded the natural landscape into his vision for the city—the bush covered hills of Mt Ainslie and Black Mountain. Today, our urban development is encroaching on our bush boundaries in Gungahlin and Molonglo. In another hundred years I would hope that we have well and truly halted the spread of our urban footprint before we put at further risk the biodiversity values of our region.
It does seem unlikely that most of us will be here in another hundred years. But we are here today because we love this city, and we have some sense of the kind of city we want it to be. I am not one for living in the past. I do not believe that this city should be what it was in the 1970s or 80s. I believe this city still has a way to go. My vision is for a well-connected, environmentally sustainable, socially just and, yes, progressive city that we are all proud of.
This year is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our past and our achievements in reaching our 100 year milestone. On behalf of the Greens, happy birthday Canberra! We wish you all the best for another 100 years. We hope to be a part of shaping your very promising future.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Health and Minister for Higher Education) (10.37), in reply: I thank members for their contribution to the debate this morning. In closing the debate, I would like to acknowledge the very significant number of previous MLAs who have attended the ceremony this morning. Your presence here shows your continued commitment to the people of Canberra and to the Legislative Assembly.
I would also like to acknowledge the current members of this place for their ongoing contribution and the work that they do as members of the Assembly, in their electorates and to the city of Canberra.
To finish I go back to where I began by referring to Lord Denman again when he spoke at the laying of the foundation stone in 1913. His words then are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago when we wonder at what Canberra might look like in its bicentenary year.
From the past to the present; now when we look forward from to the present to the future, let us remember Lord Denman’s words:
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