Page 1424 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 10 April 2013
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design studies for minor upgrades to nine shops at Charnwood, Cook, Griffith, Lyneham, Theodore, Banks, Torrens, the Mannheim Street centre in Kambah and Rivett. Again, this goes to the point that whilst we will be having a debate around the role of the city and the importance of that planning work, at the same time we are making sure that we maintain our focus on those local centres people live around and how we connect those up to the rest of the city. The public transport discussion is an important one there.
This is an exciting time for the city. As much as the opposition will like to talk it down, it is an exciting time for ideas to come forward, for people to dream. Yes, at the right time decisions will need to be taken about what is possible, not just what everyone would like to see happen. There will be discussions about the staging of that work.
I totally reject Mr Coe’s claim that we never consult with people. I also heard the interjections yesterday about how now is not the time to talk, it is time to just get on and do things. So it depends on what argument you are pushing on a particular day. But we spend—
Mr Coe: You do not take action following the consultation. That is the problem.
MS GALLAGHER: Consultation is not necessarily about just agreeing with every person who has participated in the consultation. You used the example of Hawker shops. Many people supported redevelopment at Hawker shops. Mr Coe, you chose a particular group to side with in that, and that is fair enough, but I do not think you can in all conscience come in here and say that we did not consult and that there were not mixed views on that consultation process. As you find in most consultation processes, there will be a range of views. The job of the government is to work through those and see what is reasonable and what is possible, acknowledging that at times leaders might have to do things that not everybody agrees with.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (12.09): I rise to support Ms Porter’s motion. As I have found in my short time so far in the Assembly, the challenge to keep Canberra the liveable and modern city that it is is an evolving one. Our city is unique in Australia, centred on the national institutions in the parliamentary triangle and surrounded by mountain ranges and forest.
We have developed over time a great suburban lifestyle that is almost unmatched in the rest of Australia. It is the challenge of maintaining this great suburban lifestyle that poses one of the greater planning and development challenges for government. Living and growing up in west Belconnen, I know how important each of our suburbs is to the residents. Indeed, the suburbs of west Belconnen are one of the more diverse communities in the ACT. From Spence to Flynn and Fraser, out to Charnwood, Dunlop and Macgregor, and down to Holt, Latham and Higgins, these suburbs are the home of the working foundations of our city. It is important that we continue, as this government has, to ensure that our local shopping centres and community infrastructure are able to retain their important role in supporting community wellbeing and social inclusion.
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