Page 780 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 April 2014
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But to see the convention centre not listed as a priority project I think was somewhat of a shock to people, particularly in the business community. Again, you have to ask this government about their delivery. For instance, Dr Bourke brought up the ABC flats. Quite right! But let us have a reasonable argument about the ABC flats in the context of the large flats strategy that was developed back in, I think, 1999. It listed some 19 complexes of more than 50 units that belonged to Housing ACT. What has happened with them?
MacPherson Court was done and Lachlan Court was done. Although we started the process of knocking down Burnie Court, that site has not been totally redeveloped some 13 years later. I think the Burnie Court example is the epitome of how this government operates. It is very slowly and it is very poorly. That is the problem for the city. More than 12 years in government now and here we have another document that people were looking forward to being the plan for the future of the city, but it is just a spatial framework.
If they read their own consultation documents, they would see that the number one comment they got was, “Just get on with it.” People want a city heart. Great cities have great city hearts. Whenever you go to Sydney, you can go down to Circular Quay and be in a great city hub. You know you are in Sydney. But when you get here, as Larry Altman said to a dinner that Mr Rattenbury, Mr Barr and I attended, “You have got a density hub. You have got a void. You have got a hill that nobody goes to and you have got a bypass in the form of a three-lane highway each way where people zoom through Civic without even knowing that they are there.”
What there has to be is a commitment from the government to make sure that you get a city heart that is worthy of the nation’s capital and worthy of the people here that live in the ACT. What we have is another glossy document from a glossy government. But what we do not have is a sense of delivery. What we do not have is any confidence in the community that this will occur.
The city will be defined by some of its public buildings. One of those significant buildings is, for instance, the federal parliament. You go down Commonwealth Avenue, you see the federal parliament there on the hill. You know you are in Canberra. You know you are at the heart of this nation’s democratic processes.
But when you make the trip back up Commonwealth Avenue to Civic, you do not know that you are approaching anything. It is low rise; it is indistinct; there is this bunch of poplars in the centre. Before you know it, you are through it. Cities are about destinations. Cities are about people. They are about places. They are about precincts. They are about activity. They are about traffic systems that work to the benefit of the city. They are about pedestrian and cycling access that allows people to enjoy the city. It is about getting into the city and enjoying the ambience of the city, joining in the activity.
For instance, we started the work on City Walk which was to link the lake at the eastern end—Commonwealth Park, the convention centre—all the way back down eventually through to the Diamant, New Acton and back down to the lake. Some of
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