Page 3422 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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for the first time, launching an unprecedented building boom, laying the foundations for the new town centres. Like Moses, he stilled the Molonglo’s waters and Lake Burley Griffin was filled.
The late Gough Whitlam had perhaps the most intimate involvement in Canberra of any prime minister. Gough was 10 when his father, the commonwealth deputy crown solicitor, was transferred to Canberra in 1926, ready for the opening of the first Parliament House. Gough lived in Forrest and graduated from Telopea Park intermediate high school at 15. Too young for university, he studied classics at Canberra Grammar School. After the war, he returned to Canberra as a politician. He eventually became Prime Minister on a platform that included modernising our national urban infrastructure. His personal experience of the building of Canberra no doubt contributed to that plan. It is an example of Canberra giving back to the nation. One monument to his national program to connect home in every Australian capital city to sewerage and to upgrade sewage treatment is the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre. Begun in 1975, it was an engineering marvel in its day, drawing engineers from around the world to Canberra to see it. His higher education reforms and investment in universities also made Canberra the clever capital it is today.
Self-government has allowed Canberrans to play a direct role in our city’s future. This current ACT government has presided over Canberra for more than a tenth of our history. We have always believed it is important to get the roads, rates, and rubbish right; to get the schools, the health system and the economy right; and to be investing in our future. We believe in equality of opportunity and giving everyone a fair go. These are all part of the quality of life that makes Canberra the city we love. They are all part of the city topping the OECD study and, recently, being judged as Australia’s most livable city in the Property Council’s 2014 survey.
Government in Canberra is about getting the fundamentals right but also about our future. It is about a progressive, modern, dynamic city, and maintaining a vision of Canberra as expressing something about the Australian spirit. Projects such as the arboretum, city to the lake, urban intensification, introduction of light rail, digital Canberra, diversifying the economy, and Canberra the clever capital are amongst long-term projects of this government that will shape this city into the future.
I have seen the changes in Belconnen over the last 20 years, the last 10 years in particular, greatly improving the quality of life for residents. The growth of a range of educational, health, sporting, artistic, commercial, housing, recreation and transport facilities in Belconnen has been phenomenal. They have brought the Belconnen CBD to life, integrated it with Lake Ginninderra and shown a way forward for other town centres and Civic.
There is always more to do. This government is getting on with it. That said, our future has its threats. Somewhat sadly, given Canberra’s role as the commonwealth capital, being largely built by commonwealth governments, our greatest threat is now the current commonwealth government’s attitude to Canberra. Canberra is seen by the Abbott government as a place to plunder and punish. Jobs here are being cut or redistributed for pork-barrelling elsewhere. Our flagship scientific organisation, the
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