Page 521 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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could move with fairly quickly, although the next stage of that is actually to get support for funding to get it investment ready and get a final business plan in place, which is not in place yet. There is a bit of work. The last request I saw for that was for $8 million to progress that work. That gets the business case to a point where it is investment ready.
The city plan and the work we have done with the community show that the community wants to see things happen and they want the city centre built. That is why you saw the announcement from the Treasurer on Monday around the city to the lake and starting with another project there. We have already got the design work around looking at Parkes Way boulevard. This will also do the next stage work that is needed for the design of West Basin. We have also got other priority projects, like capital metro, which again is one of those important projects for the city.
With a dose of understanding that this will take time to deliver on, this plan sets the framework in place, and it is a very clear statement from the government about where we would like to see development occur and where we think particular projects should be located, which then allows those projects to be facilitated. We are moving forward with it.
Mr Smyth: What? After 12 years?
MS GALLAGHER: I know Mr Smyth will try and take credit for it, as you are wont to do.
MADAM SPEAKER: Standing order 42, Chief Minister.
MS GALLAGHER: I am sure we all enjoyed reading an opinion piece. At least Mr Smyth has an opinion on it. That was welcome. But the city plan at its heart is a spatial framework document that sets the scene for what we would like to see happen in terms of transport and land use. Individual projects form a subset of that—projects like the capital metro and city to the lake, which are all being developed.
If we were inundated with investment and investors to build all that infrastructure in the next couple of years we would be ready for and welcoming of that. Indeed, that is the work that the Minister for Economic Development will be doing on his next overseas trade delegation and it is the work I will be doing when I go to China with the Prime Minister in early April to talk to investors around opportunities, particularly opportunities in the city.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Coe.
MR COE: Chief Minister, will Canberrans have to wait 15 years, or perhaps even more, for a convention centre, an aquatic centre or a theatre?
MS GALLAGHER: The government will take decisions about individual projects in accordance with the guidance provided by the city plan, as we do each and every year when we sit down to finalise our priorities. We already are putting our effort into two key projects under the city plan: capital metro and city to the lake. They are very clear
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