Page 1144 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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That has always been an important part of Labor’s record on planning. Let us not forget that the Liberal Party would have us believe that there was a planning utopia in the days before this government was elected. We know that that simply was not the case and that Mr Corbell and other colleagues came in and significantly reformed the planning system. We do have an independent planning system. That is there. That is the hallmark of this government. It is important. It will remain and Canberrans support it.
That does not mean that there are not decisions people will disagree with. There will always be that in planning but we have the framework as it is now and we are looking at ways to strengthen that and allow appropriate community involvement that we can balance with the needs of a city that needs to be built, that is only half built and that needs to be built further. We heard the lectures from Mr Smyth yesterday about developing Canberra and growing Canberra. That is a balancing act when you listen to the voices of people who would like to see minimal change to the way the city has been built and the way it is going to be built in the future.
We also believe in a fair, efficient and effective judicial system which is, again, looking at the needs of all involved in court processes, trying to look at ways to improve the lives of vulnerable Canberrans and disadvantaged Canberrans who find themselves before the courts. There is some big work underway with the justice reinvestment program and also with throughcare which is showing some early but very promising results to date. That is something, I think, that the government would like to see continue and be built upon. Indeed, it is part of the work that Minister Rattenbury and the Attorney-General will be doing. We will have more to say around justice reform and justice reinvestment in the coming months.
I agree that priorities are important for Canberrans and that the key priorities are around local government services. They are around health, around education, around community services. They are around fair funding for all our schools. It is around providing people with a disability with the support and the resources they need to live independent lives with dignity and respect from other members of the community. There is also a very important role for government to encourage fairness and equity across the city to make sure that whilst we are addressing areas of importance to all Canberrans, we are also taking care of those that need an extra helping hand. We have also got more to do there.
Against that backdrop we need to make sure that we are looking at the future, and that does involve big projects like public transport, like capital metro. It does involve looking at development across the city and building up the city centre through projects like city to the lake. It does involve continuing to build our health system in stages over time with developments like the University of Canberra public hospital, like facilities such as the secure mental health unit, which I look forward to the support of the Assembly to progress quickly through the legislation we bought to the Assembly.
Mr Coe: Or just do a territory plan variation.
MS GALLAGHER: The Assembly has already passed its view on the secure unit and has given the authority to proceed with that as soon as we possibly can through our legislative framework and we will be pursuing that.
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