Page 1251 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 March 2013
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Mr Doszpot: Madam Acting Speaker, could I ask that the minister take this question on notice if she cannot answer it here today about what is the specific budget?
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: The minister has answered the question.
Planning—Amaroo shops
MRS JONES: My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Minister, Bonner is quite a new suburb, still under development, sporting a shopping centre, including a large supermarket. Amaroo, on the other hand, is a long-established suburb, with only a petrol station and a large vacant block of land for a group centre, sporting little more than a recently turned sod of earth. Minister, why have the people of Amaroo had to wait so long for their group centre?
MR CORBELL: I understand that work is commencing in relation to the Amaroo group centre. Group centres are, by necessity, developed at a later stage than local shopping centres such as Bonner, and it is a factor driven by the necessary population being in place in the catchment for the group centre that determines when the group centre is suitable for release and development.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mrs Jones.
MRS JONES: Minister, is the new development activity on the site for the entire group centre?
MR CORBELL: I would have to seek some advice as to which parcels of land have been released at the group centre for development. So I will take that aspect of your question on notice, Mrs Jones. But it is, I would observe, normal practice for group centres to be developed in stages. That has certainly been the history of group centres right around the ACT and I would not be surprised if Amaroo was in a similar circumstance.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: Do you want a supplementary, Mr Doszpot?
MR DOSZPOT: Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. Minister, why did Bonner get an entire group centre before Amaroo?
MR CORBELL: Bonner is not a group centre.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Minister, are there other long-established suburbs in Canberra still waiting for their group centres? If yes, what is the government’s planning program for those suburbs?
MR CORBELL: I would not characterise Bonner, Forde or indeed even Amaroo as long established. Obviously Amaroo has been in existence for about 10 years or so. But it is important to stress that the group centre is there to service a catchment of
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