Page 448 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 March 2014
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Canberra is a very different place from what it was in 1996. I feel very optimistic about the next couple of years, but it is going to take hard work. It is going to take a lot of compromise, discussion and consultation to get the plans that we have in place supported by the Canberra community. I feel very confident that we will be able to do that.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.09): It is an important subject. The subject—the importance of building momentum in the ACT economy and supporting local jobs—is a curious thing, because you only have to build momentum after you have allowed it to slow or it has stalled, and that is the problem. This government, through their policies, have stalled the economy. They have done it through taxation, they have done it through red tape, they have done it through their inability to deliver on capital works projects and they have done it through their inability to deliver on their plans. This is a government of failure in regard to the business community of the ACT.
If you think of us as the city-state, we are simply a city. For a government to be effective, they must be city builders. They must build the economy; they must build the city as our home. And this government have failed.
You only have to hear Ms Gallagher say, “Of course, we’ve got the city plan.” Yes, you do have the city plan, and it has come a decade after the last city plan: City Hill—a concept for the future. Members, I am sure, will remember Mr Corbell’s attempt in 2005 to have the City Hill concept for the future, and his successful delivery of that plan! In the plan there are about 16 key features, and it would be interesting to run through them and see how much Mr Corbell was able to deliver.
It is better if we go back a little bit to the introduction, and see what the purpose of this plan was. The purpose of this plan was to make City Hill the feature. The context section of the document states:
Both the ACT and Australian Governments have made considerable planning investment in the central area. Canberra Central will turn this investment into action, prioritising and managing the efforts of all the key government, industry and community stakeholders. Canberra Central will develop the theme identified in The Canberra Plan—to create City as ‘a dynamic heart’. The conceptual framework presented here has the potential for City Hill to be the perfect venue for celebrating the Centenary of the naming of Canberra.
There you go—the perfect venue! It did not participate a whole lot in the centenary year. Only last week we had the first event for it in the centenary year, and that was to close it on City Hill.
So what has happened? Can we have any faith in this government and their ability to deliver? Let us look at what Mr Corbell promised. A new city gateway? I do not think that happened. Northbourne Avenue realignment? I do not think that has happened. A city heritage precinct? I do not think that a great deal has happened there. Hotel development with public car parking at the intersection of London Circuit and Northbourne Avenue? That has not happened.
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