Page 1331 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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The government’s long-term commitment to building the city’s infrastructure is abundantly clear, and this commitment has several important effects. I will spend some time now reflecting on those.
First and foremost, this investment generates jobs. The money that we are investing to build infrastructure is money that goes into the pockets of, predominantly, our local workforce, whether they are tradies or architects or, indeed, as Mr Coe seems to deride, those who do artistic impressions of such work—
Mr Coe: They do a great job, I said.
MR BARR: They do a great job, and we are predominantly visual people and we like to see what something will look like. Of course, we invest in these people and they invest in our local economy. And the government’s investments here will be particularly important in the coming months and years, as we anticipate a significant withdrawal of the commonwealth government in terms of its expenditure in the city both as an employer and as an infrastructure investor.
Secondly, infrastructure spending provides for improved services and facilities that the community needs, ranging from hospitals and schools through to roads and emergency services. Investing in education infrastructure certainly played an important part in building and maintaining confidence in jobs in the territory in recent times. In the first instance, of course, there is an immediate impact that that construction activity has either for a new school or in enhancing existing education infrastructure. But those first building jobs and the direct injection of money into the economy had a great impact. In the longer term those schools and those education institutions have benefits from that infrastructure investment well beyond the construction phase.
Investment in education infrastructure ensures that students now and into the future have high-quality places in which to learn, to grow and to thrive and certainly ensures that those who go through high-quality schools and vocational education and training institutions will develop the skills and knowledge to contribute to our economy and our community and gain meaningful and dignified work in their adult life. Thirdly, a commitment to investment creates confidence in our community that the government is working for them and creating the right conditions for growth and investment.
Our investment in social infrastructure in Gungahlin, for example, is creating a vibrant precinct for the community and providing the right incentives for business to co-invest in the growth of the Gungahlin town centre. The recent investments in terms of the Southquay development in the Tuggeranong town centre are another example where the government’s infrastructure investments can certainly lead to co-investment from the private sector. Our infrastructure investments in the Woden town centre and the forthcoming partnership with Westfield in relation to the upgrading of the Woden bus interchange by which we will leverage significant investment from Westfield is another example similar to what has occurred in the Belconnen town centre in recent times.
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