Page 4006 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 30 October 2013
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Paper
Mr Corbell presented the following paper:
Petition which does not conform with the standing orders—Yabby traps that endanger wildlife—Mr Corbell (111 signatures).
Planning—draft city plan
Debate resumed.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (3.34), in reply: Madam Speaker, I thank everybody for their contributions to the debate this morning. The vitality of our city centre is a reflection on the vitality of our territory. While I was listening to everybody talking about the city centre plan and how wonderful our beautiful city is, I was reflecting on my childhood and how I felt about the city centre as a young person—Civic, as we called it back then. As a young teenager growing up in west Belconnen, a big event for us was coming into Civic to go to the movie theatre on the weekend. There were no movie theatres in Belconnen back then. We would catch the bus at Holt shops into Belconnen and then catch the 333 into the city to see the movies. Usually it was on a Saturday afternoon or occasionally on a Sunday, and it was an incredibly quiet place back in those days. We used to go into Chicken Gourmet, grab our chips and gravy and sneak them into the theatre. Sometimes we would get away with it.
Mr Coe: There were a heap of CFMEU guys in there just the other day, actually.
MS BERRY: It is lovely that everybody is enjoying some of the fine eateries in our fine city. But my memories of the city back then compared to how it is today show how hard it is to imagine what it might be in the future. I know my children would never, ever imagine what it could possibly look like, and when looking at some of the plans and pictures of what could possibly make up the city to the lake plan, it is something we can only imagine. It is only one day in the future when we are walking along the lake or walking through the city that we will be able to see what a fantastic city centre Civic is, how proud Canberrans are of our city and how willing we are to participate in the drafting of the plan. Mr Corbell has identified that 15,000 Canberrans made their contributions to the first round of consultations, with many more thousands to come I am sure.
I want to focus on the positives that the draft city to the lake plan can give to our city. I want to reflect on some of the things people said in this Assembly this morning about the drafting of the city to the lake plan. As Mr Gentleman said, moving the city centre towards a more pedestrian-friendly model will support growth and encourage more foot traffic around our retail precincts. You might have to walk a little bit further for your chips and gravy, but you will be able to have it on the lake perhaps instead of in the actual city, which is a wonderful thing. I am sure you might be able to meet more than just union members down there on the lake—there will be other people in our community enjoying their chips and gravy. It might be the food of the future!
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